Tour de France: Peter Sagan wins crash-marred stage 2 and takes yellow jersey

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Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) took the win on stage 2 of the Tour de France in La Roche-sur-Yon, also taking over the lead in the general classification. A fast-finishing Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) was second, while Arnaud Demaré (Groupama-FDJ) completed the podium.

It was another hectic finale, marred by a crash 2km from the finish. Yellow jersey Fernando Gaviria (Quick Step Floors) was the main casualty, while Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) was also involved. Around 15 riders remained at the front of the race afterwards, including the podium men plus André Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) and European champion Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates).

With several teammates remaining in that lead group, Bora-Hansgrohe had the numerical advantage and delivered on it, with Sagan enjoying a mini-leadout before surfing Demaré’s wheel and then going long to seal the victory. Colbrelli came from further back to challenge in the closing metres, but it wasn’t enough to overhaul the Slovakian.

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“I’m really happy for today, and I say a big thanks to all my teammates because they were in front for the last 30km,” Sagan said. “In the end I expected something more easy — it was really tough, up and down.”

“For one day?” he asked when informed that he took the yellow jersey, “That’s pretty cool. I’m very happy for that. Very happy. My father is here and my friends from Žilina — my home city — it’s very nice.”

Sagan will wear yellow in Monday’s team time trial, six seconds ahead of Gaviria. The world champion also leads the points classification, while Gaviria retains white and Dion Smith (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) takes over the polka dot jersey. Meanwhile, Geraint Thomas’ (Team Sky) one-second time bonus at the bonification sprint gives him a good chance of being in yellow after the TTT.

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How it happened

The second stage of the 2018 Tour de France was another flat one, again with just one category four climb on the route — the Côte de Pouzauges (1km at 3.9 per cent) just 28km into the 182.5km stage.

It was another stage in Vendée department, headed from Mouilleron Saint-Germain to La Roche-sur-Yon, with the day’s intermediate sprint coming at 132.5km, and the bonification sprint at 168.5km. A tight right-hander followed by a long, sweeping right onto the finishing straight made up the obstacles in the final 2km of the stage.

Once again, the break went clear in the very early kilometres of the stage, with Sylvain Chavanel (Direct Énergie), riding his 18th successive Tour, joined by Smith and Michael Gogl (Trek Segafredo). Polka dot jersey Kevin Lédanois attempted to bridge across, mindful of the points on offer early in the stage, but was shut down by the Quick Step Floors-led peloton.

A three-minute gap quickly opened up before Smith took the points on the Côte de Pouzauges, leaving him equal with Lédanois at the top of the standings. All he’d need to do was stay ahead of him on GC — and Lédanois had lost over three minutes on stage one.

Chavanel soon found himself alone at the head of the race, some 145km from the finish. Smith had dropped back, happy with his work, while Gogl did the same following a visit from the medical car.

Heading into the final 100km, Chavanel enjoyed a 4:30 advantage, while back down the road it was a quiet day — similar to stage one before the carnage. Meanwhile, Tsgabu Grmay (Trek-Segafredo) suffered the ignominious honour of becoming the first man to abandon the Tour, climbing off with severe abdominal pain 90km out.

A hotly-contested intermediate sprint 50km from the finish saw Sagan take second with Gaviria content with third and Kristof scooping up the points for fourth.

Luis León Sánchez (Astana) became the Tour’s second casualty, abandoning after a nasty crash 40km from the line. At the front of the peloton, Dimension Data, Quick Step Floors and Bora-Hansgrohe were among the teams driving things along as Chavanel’s advantage began to ebb away.

After a crash and 51-second time loss yesterday, Adam Yates’ (Mitchelton-Scott) miserable Tour start continued with another crash 30km out, though both he and Démare – who punctured several kilometres later – would quickly make it back to the peloton.

Chavanel’s day up the road eventually came to an end 13km from the line, leaving it for the sprinter’s teams to battle for position ahead of the big finish. Disaster struck 8km out for Katusha-Alpecin sprinter Marcel Kittel, leaving him out of contention for the win.

A crash on the tight right-hander just 2km out saw much of the peloton — including Gaviria — out of contention for the win, but Bora-Hansgrohe took advantage of having several riders in the reduced front group to deliver Sagan his tenth Tour de France stage victory.

Update: UCI judges at the Tour de France have made significant revisions to the stage 2 classification, almost four hours after the stage ended. The revisions were made after it came to light that the UCI judges had made an error with regard to the chaotic final that involved mechanicals and crashes late in the stage. The revised full results are below.

Full Results