Tour de France stage 2 - Live coverage

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage from stage 2 of the 2021 Tour de France. Not sure where to really start after what we saw yesterday but let's begin by sharing some video highlights from a breathtaking day at the Tour de France.

Obviously, we'll get to Alaphilippe and the yellow jersey but the day was overshadowed by the two major crashes - one with 45km to go, and the second with around 6km to go. Here's a full list of the walking wounded, and those riders who have unfortunately been forced home through injury. 

The breaking news from this morning is that Marc Hirschi and Chris Froome will both start the race. Both riders came down yesterday in the crashes and were doubts for this morning. Here's the latest on Froome. To be honest I thought he was a DNF for sure when he was struggling to stand. He apparently landed on other riders, and bikes, rather than the tarmac. 

The full extent in terms of the GC picture after the two crashes is neatly summed up here. It's not looking good for Movistar, or Ineos, or ISN. 

Spare a thought for Marc Soler. He was forced out of the Giro after a crash when well-placed on GC and he's out of the Tour now too. I've heard he fractured an elbow but have also heard that he broke both arms in the fall. He finished the stage! But he's obviously out of the race. Movistar also saw Miguel Angel Lopez lose a chunk of time too. 

We'll roll out from the start in just over an hour from now but riders are signing on at present. We should start to hear more from other teams in terms of their injury lists. Here's a medical update I was sent last night from the UAE Team.

Medical Bulletin:

Mikkel Bjerg : Multiple contusions, abrasions and small lacerations. Contusion to right knee joint and right elbow joint and muscular contusions over both posterior thighs.

Brandon McNulty: Some small abrasions of the right wrist and elbow but otherwise ok despite high-speed fall.

Rui Costa: Minor contusions of buttocks and abrasion to fight ankle.

All 3 riders above in good spirits & fit to continue.

And here's what they sent out this morning.

Medical Update : 

After his crash yesterday Marc Hirschi had considerable pain in the night with his shoulder. After consultation with the medical staff this morning, he will try to start stage 2 today. 

Nibali, who is here for stages and to prep for the Olympics, also spoke about stage 1. Here's what the 2014 Tour champ had to say:

"The Tour de France is the most nervous and stressful Grand Tour and this unfortunately has always brought many crashes. We have a lot GC riders that want to stay in the front and their teams as well. Unfortunately in recent past a few crashes have happened due to fans being inattentive, as happened today. It definitely wasn’t a good day and a good start from this point of view.

"I’ve been involved too today in the massive crash, luckily with no consequences. We need to keep a lot of attention and the fans must do the same on the road. We need respect. The Peloton can be a fast train running, it can be really dangerous without the proper concentration.

My legs? It was a good start, being in the front, testing myself. It was not my finish but for explosive puncheurs. But being there it’s a good feedback."

The biggest news story that we ran overnight was that ASO might take legal action against the spectator who caused the first crash. If you've been living under a rock for the last 24hrs, here's what happened. With around 45km to go a spectator, who very much looked like my own mother on a ramble in the Cotswolds, stood on the side of the road and decided it would be a great idea to stick a cardboard sign in Tony Martin's face when he was traveling at 60kph, and sitting second-wheel at the front of the peloton. Said spectator has apparently gone AWOL (please call home, mum) but ASO are talking about possible legal action. Here's the story from Laura Weislo.

No word yet from Trek on Mads Pedersen. He was involved in the crash yesterday at the end and although he went for x-rays and was cleared the team said last night they would make a call on the Dane. Let's text their press officer Jacob and find out...

'Yep' is the official line from Jacob. That was fast. So Mads Pedersen will start stage 2 of the Tour de France.

It was a mixed day for Ineos Grenadiers. They saw Tao Geoghegan Hart and Richie Porte drop out of contention for the GC due to crashes. Carapaz lost a few seconds, but Thomas remained right up there. The British team came into the race talking about depth and being able to play four cards but their hand has been dealt a blow. Here's the always excellent Philippa York on the team's options for the rest of the race and where they stand against Pogacar and Roglic in the battle for yellow. 

This looks like a lot of effort but fair play.

Merijn Zeeman, the senior DS at Jumbo Visma, spoke to CN last night about the crashes. Here's what the Dutchman had to Stephen Farrand.

“On the first crash it’s because the public are there and there are no fences, it’s not regulated and they’re standing on the roads. It’s ridiculous. It’s months of training with our partners. If you see the cost of the damage of that crash, you don’t want to know, but it’s hundreds of thousands of Euros. The Tour de France is such a big race, you’d have create space with the public all over the parcours, not only in the last kilometres. It’s so dangerous. Also when you’re driving behind with the car, people are drinking the whole day, it’s really, really dangerous.” 

Full story, right here.

Roll out for stage 2 of the Tour de France is about 30 minutes away.

Here's the GC picture coming into today's all-important stage.

Don't forget our handy guide on how to follow the Tour de France via streams and video. Here's the link.

Peter Cossins, who lives in France and has covered a stack of Tours over the years has written our stage previews this year. Here's what he had to say about today's stage profile:

To an extent, stage 2 is a rehashing of the opening day of the Tour, with six lower-category climbs on the menu and another testing uphill finish that will suit the puncheurs, and perhaps even result in the same winner as 24 hours earlier.

This one starts in a gentler manner, at least as far as the terrain is concerned, as the road follows the beautiful Pink Granite Coast of northern Brittany. Of course, being right on the edge of the Atlantic could make for a very challenging start indeed. What’s more, the route remains within sniffing distance of the coast until beyond the stage’s halfway point, so if the conditions are difficult there’s going to be little escape from them until the riders reach Saint-Brieuc, with two-thirds of the stage complete.

This is where the climbing becomes more challenging, the route bumping its way southwards to Mûr-de-Bretagne Guerlédan, where the fourth categorised climb of the day leads directly onto a finishing circuit that begins with the third-category ascent through the finish line. The route continues northwards for a couple of kilometres, then loops back to the south to return to arrive at the final ascent once again, the climb running for two kilometres at 6.9 per cent.

Peter Cossins actually wrote the race report for the Mur de Bretagne stage for us 10 years ago when Cadel Evans beat Alberto Contador to the line. Barry Ryan, who was on live coverage that day, is writing the race report this afternoon. That day I was forced to run up the final climb because I parked too far away from the finish and almost missed the sprint.

Less than ten minutes until we roll out for the start of stage 2 of the Tour de France. The neutralized zone will take around 10 minutes to complete. 

Tony Martin has spoken:

"I saw the lady, I saw the sign but at the last moment she turned the sign into the road so for me there was no time to react. The move was pretty unexpected. I still can't understand how people can do things like that. We're here to race our bikes, it's not a circus. 

Actually I don't feel too bad. The night was okay. I have no pain now on the bike. So I have to see from day-to-day but I hope that I can recover."

More from Martin:

"The mechanics had a longer night. There were a lot of bikes that were completely broken. The doctors had a lot of things to do too and in the next days with changing bandages. It's not a nice start to the Tour de France but we get used to it."

On the start line...

The riders are rolling out from the neutralized zone. The sun is out, Luke Rowe is on the front and we're almost racing on stage 2 of the 2021 Tour de France. The riders have 183.5km on the menu, and here's Stephen Farrand's must-read stage preview. 

Less than 1km to go before Christian Prudhomme appears through the sunroof and drops the flag. 

I think they should award the flag dropping to local celebs. Like, if it was the Tour of Britain, one day it could be H from Steps, the next, Maureen from Driving School. 

And we're racing on stage 2 of the Tour de France. It's a relatively flattish start this morning with the first climb of the Côte de Sainte-Barbe coming about 70km into the day. We have a few immediate attacks with Intermarche and Trek trying to get off the front.

Miguel Angel Lopez needs a bike change. 

It's been a frantic start, so that's not the ideal time for a mechanical/change. 

176km to go

Almost 10km covered already but no move has stuck just yet. Lotto, Cofidis and EF then fire riders off the front.

174km to go and there might be a large group going clear here. The pace remains high though back in the bunch. 

Cofidis again, who last won a stage in the Tour when it was in black and white, send another rider up the road with an attack. 

We have a rider from Cofidis and a rider from Intermarche... then the rest of the peloton. The gap is just a few seconds though.

171km to go

Lopez is just coming back to the bunch as we see the break swell to four riders. 

The KOM leader has gone on the attack too. He even waves to the bunch, thanking them for letting him go. A rider from B&B goes after him but QuickStep are leading the chase.

Kock, Perez, Clarke and Theuns are the four leaders with 169km to go. They have 21 seconds. Schelling is about to be caught though. He's not happy with being chased down so he attacks again. 

Perez is a threat for the KOM jersey, hence the frantic chase from the Bora rider but again he's brought back. The four leaders have 14 seconds.

165km to go

Ide Schelling has gone again and this time he's going to make contact with the leaders. We now have 6 riders up the road. The gap looks good and this is the break of the day. 

Our six leaders are Anthony Perez (Cofidis), Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo), Simon Clarke (Qhubeka-Nexthash) and Jonas Koch (Intermarché-Wanty Gobert), Ide Schelling (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Jérémy Cabot (TotalEnergies).

The bunch have eased up, Bouhanni has dropped back to the cars, and a few riders are struggling too. Presumably after the crashes from yesterday.

156km to go

Just over 155km to go and the six leaders have pushed out their advantage to 2'35 over the peloton. 

They're back in blue today...

Deceuninck-QuickStep on the front right now and setting the pace. Yesterday was their 100th Grand Tour stage win. 

The gap to the break is at 3'44.

It's Tim Declercq on the front for the yellow jersey right now as we see a few spots of rain start to fall. That's brought Ineos and their entire team to the front.

146km to go and the gap is up to 4'00. The rain is a bit heavier now though.

A bit of wind too as the weather worsens. All of Ineos are sat behind the one rider from QuickStep as we move into the last 145km to go. The break have 4'01 on the bunch. Thomas is the last rider in the Ineos train.

Luke Durbridge has moved BikeExchange to the front now, as a few more teams follow the Ineos play and bring up their GC cards. The pace isn't that fast, but everyone wants to keep out of trouble. 

135km to go

Rolling terrain right now and it looks like the rain has eased slightly. None of the riders in the break have won a stage in the Tour before but Clarke has two Vuelta stages to his name - and a KOM title in that race.

These tight and twisty roads lead to the peloton lining out with the yellow jersey well protected and his entire team around him. Bahrain have brought Haig up near the front too, while Jumbo Visma are present and accounted for. At the back of the bunch we have Matthews, who is wearing Green today with Alaphilippe in yellow. We have an intermediate sprint coming up after the first climb of the day.

129km to go

Are six leaders are: Anthony Perez (Cofidis), Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo), Simon Clarke (Qhubeka-Nexthash) and Jonas Koch (Intermarché-Wanty Gobert), Ide Schelling (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Jérémy Cabot (TotalEnergies).

They have 3'40 over the peloton. 

Wout van Aert is back in the cars too. He was in the first fall yesterday but he's a contender for today potentially, although he wasn't able to go with Alaphilippe when the Frenchman simply rode the Jumbo rider off his wheel.

We're about 17km away from the Côte de Sainte-Barbe. 

Tim Declercq will clearly do more work on the front in this year's race when compared to any other rider. We've covered around 60km so far today and he's been at the head of affairs for most of that. The gap to the six riders up front though has dropped to 2'17.

It must be somewhat demoralizing for the break to know that work of just one man has cut your lead in half, and that there are six of you.

Tim Declercq has been joined by a teammate for now, while Ineos remain just behind. Pogacar, Roglic, Cavendish, and Thomas are all near the front. 

The peloton have eased just slightly and that's allowed the break to push the gap back out to 3'24 with 117km to go.

Back to just Tim Declercq on the front again. I think that teammate was simply dropping off the Belgian's lunch. Behind him we have van Baarle and then Kwiatkowski. 

Up ahead and the break are 2.3km away from the first fourth cat climb of the stage.

And we're only the Côte de Sainte-Barbe. It's less than 1km in length, so nothing to trouble the break or the bunch.

Perez takes the single point, with a really powerful move but then Ide Schelling attacks over the top.

109km to go

109km to go and the gap is at 2'34. We have that intermediate sprint at Plouha coming up. 

That single point means that Ide Schelling and Perez are tied on three points each in the KOM competition. 

The break are 5km from the sprint but we can expect to see their 2'52 lead shrink dramatically in the next few minutes as more and more sprinters teams move up. Yesterday we saw Ewan, Matthews and Sagan go for the intermediate and we should see something similar in the next few minutes.

In fact here come all of Lotto Soudal. 102km to go.

100km to go and the gap is at 2'34. 

Groupama have brought up Demare too. This could get very tasty with a large portion of the sprinters vying for the remaining points on offer.

Theuns takes 20 points from the break. The gap is down to just 2'17 to the bunch now. Jonas Koch was second on the line.

Here come the bunch and Matthews is on his own.

Cavendish is up there.

Ewan takes seventh and it was either 8th for Cavendish or Philipsen. Matthews was boxed in and never really got going.

95km to go and the gap between the break and the bunch is down to 1'41.

Cavendish was indeed eighth, so only Ewan beat him in the sprint for seventh. Interesting, very interesting. 

The gap to the break is at 1'21 but it might increase again as we see the peloton ride through the feedzone.

Perez and Cabot are the best placed riders in the break on GC but they're both almost six minutes down on yellow - so no threat as we see more rain start to fall. 

Two more fourth cat climbs coming up in the next phase of the stage so we should see a few more fireworks in the KOM battle but it's unlikely that the leaders up the road will make it to the first ascent of the Mur de Bretagne. Not at this rate anyway. 

Alasdair Fotheringham, the Fotheringham who didn't give out to me at me in 1997 when I did work experience Cycling Weekly and forgot to take down David Millar's mobile number from the Midi Libre, has talked to Alberto Contador about today's stage finish. 

"The good thing about these opening weekend stages in Brittany like the Mûr de Bretagne is the GC battle starts from the word go," Contador told Cyclingnews shortly before the Tour had got underway. "There are riders like [Mathieu] van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) or [Julian] Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) or [Wout] van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) who really pull in the fans and who are very effective in these finishes."

The full story is here.

Onto the Côte de Pordic and Perez has attacked from a long, long way out.

We've still got 1.6km to climb and he's been caught.

Ide Schelling, Perez and Koch are clear of the other riders in the break but the bunch are at 1'19. We've still got 80km to go in the stage.

Full gas sprint from both Ide Schelling and Perez and in the end Ide Schelling wins out and takes the single point on offer. The next climb is about 10km from this point.

The break are coming back together just as we see the bunch crest that last climb with a deficit at 1'34.

So Ide Schelling leads the KOM competition by 1 point but there's another 4th climb to come on the Côte de Saint-Brieuc.

The peloton aren't too far back though, 1'07 to be precise with 74km to go as we see van der Poel at the back with a puncture.

A back wheel change for the Dutch rider and he's back on his bike and chasing. 73km to go.

70km to go

The harmony has gone out of the break and and Theuns has attacked. 

Perez and Ide Schelling have missed out here as they mark each other out and fail to chase. Theuns is clear and it looks like Koch has gone after him. 

Theuns is well clear and he's about to hit the foot of this fourth cat climb. This should   almost guarantee Ide Schelling the KOM jersey for the day.

Clarke is going to take the single point at this rate. The rest of the break are likely to be caught very soon as we see Groupama set the pace for the peloton with Gaudu in second wheel. He's a Breton rider of course.

The bunch can see the break - minus Theuns - on the climb. 67km to go.

Clarke was in a crash on the descent before that last climb. He's back in the bunch now as Cabot links up with Theuns. They have 1'44 with 64km to go.

60km to go

These roads are tight, technical, and constantly rolling. It's a real battle in concentration for the riders as we see Theuns almost lose Cabot's wheel. The Trek Segafredo rider makes contact again though and the pair push on. Their lead at 1'38 with 60km to go.

Gilbert is back with the medical car. I'm not sure he crashed yesterday but he's having a bandage put on his right side. Not sure what's happened there but he looks 'okay'. 

Simon Clarke, who did crash earlier, is riding at the back of the main field as up the road his previous companions, Cabot and Theuns hold onto a 1'48 lead over the peloton. 55km to go.

In the bunch QuickStep, UAE, BikeExchange and Groupama hog the front. 

Jérémy Cabot is actually riding his first Grand Tour, and he was a bit of a late bloomer on the road scene but he's really stepped up in the last few seasons. He and Theuns continue to share the workload right now as we close in on the final 50km of today's stage.

ISN have brought Woods up and Sagan is close by as well. He's never really shone on the finish that we'll use today but he'll probably crack the top placings and pick up some points on the pure sprinters. 

The sun is out now by the way, as we see the Trek car try and pass through the peloton. That looks so sketchy because the roads are so tight. The driver is doing a decent job though, it must be said. I'd just be screaming with panic if I was him/her.

Nothing says Tour de France like a 30-foot Mr Potato Head (TM) at the side of the road but Theuns and Cabot race by the French monument like it doesn't even exist. The French gave the US the Statue of Liberty - in return they were sent a 30-ft Mr Potato Head. Seems fair.

45km to go

The race is on now and we're inside the final 45km of the stage. More and more teams are fighting their way to the front, with the gap to the leaders at 2'07.

Ineos are brought to the front by Luke Rowe with Thomas nicely tucked in and Carapaz there too. The yellow jersey and all the main contenders are where they need to be but this is going to be another really tense finale. Hopefully everyone gets through safely. 

The tension is really starting to build within the bunch. We still have the Côte du village de Mûr-de-Bretagne, a fourth cat climb, and then two ascents of the Mur de Bretagne itself. There's no descent between those last two climbs - it's more of a false flat, and then it's a tight turn before the riders start climbing again. Right now a few riders are taking on some food with 38km to go. 

Still two minutes for our leaders on the stage but the bunch are just starting to ramp up the pace. Sagan and Thomas are riding near each other as we see a bit of a cross-wind, which turns to a headwind now.

It's almost full gas from the bunch now as riders likes Kung, Scotson and Oss hit the front. 

Now inside the final 28km and as a result of that increase in pace the gap is down to 1'21. The leaders could be caught before we reach the first ascent of the Mur de Bretagne. 

Finally we see Jumbo Visma near the front, Movistar too, with Ineos on the far side of the road. Alaphilippe is two wheels back from Cavendish but the defending champion might be a bit too far back at this point. Pogacar needs to move up. 

Tony Martin, half man, half mummy hits the front with most of Alpecin Fenix also well positioned. Van der Poel wasn't in the final yesterday but today certainly suits him.

25km to go now and the gap to the leaders is at 1'08. 

We're just over 5km from the next climb. It's short, it's punchy but the fight for position is going to be the most important aspect. 58 seconds for the leaders. 

Pogacar is being brought up now. 

Some road furniture in the middle of the road but the peloton make it through. Ineos, Bora, FDJ, Jumbo, and QuickStep are on the front with 22km to go.

The yellow jersey has Pogacar to his right. Matthews to his side too.

Pogacar just moves up a bit more, one wheel at a time. He looks comfortable. 

21km to go

Up ahead and Theuns has attacked and gone clear with 21km to go. The bunch are at 21 seconds.

Good ride from the Belgian today, who crashed several times yesterday. 

QuickStep take control through a tricky section and the bunch strings out in one long line. 22 seconds for Theuns.

We're onto the Côte du village de Mûr-de-Bretagne and Theuns has 1.3km to climb. 

The pace is too high in the bunch for any attacks right now and the gap is down to 14 seconds. 

Van der Poel is maybe 5th wheel at the moment and he has just one teammate left.

Tony Martin swings off, job done for the day.

That's a really tight almost 180 degree turn and Alaphilippe moves into third wheel behind his teammates. 18km to go. 

Theuns is caught just after taking the point at the top of the climb. 

It's a short descent now before we hit the first time up the Mûr-de-Bretagne. 

Haig and his team are on the front and we're climbing the Mûr-de-Bretagne.

Van Aert is third wheel. 

16.8km to go and Van der Poel has attacked. 

And he has a good gap almost immediately. 

He has 1.5km to go on this ascent as UAE lead the chase for Pogacar. 

There's a long way to go but Van der Poel has the confidence and the skill to pull this off. 

Van der Poel has 17 seconds with 16.2km to go on the stage. 

UAE need more help to close this down. 

800m to go on this ascent for Van der Poel. He has 14 seconds. 

13 seconds, it's not extending and he's looking back. 10 seconds now with 15.7km to go.

Carapaz and Valverde are itching to attack.

Van der Poel is caught with 15km to go and Pogacar accelerates. 

That caused a minor split but the move is marked and now EF pick up the pace on the short section off the climb. 

UAE set the pace and we're all back together. There's another small bump before we get to the final ascent of the Mûr-de-Bretagne. 13km to go.

Simon Yates is moving up too. 

All the GC riders are here.

And it's all of Ineos on the front now. 12.5km to go.

Colbrelli is there. Matthews too. 

It's Van Baarle who sets the pace and Kuss is bringing Roglic up as well. 

There are maybe 30 riders who could win today but the favourite is probably Alaphilippe. Van der Poel is right near the back.

Thomas has Carapaz on his wheel with 11.6km to go as Ineos continue to set the pace. 

We're down to about 60 riders in the main field.

Alaphilippe needs to move up, and fast. 

The yellow jersey is working his way back up. Woods too.

Inside the final 10km on stage 2 of the Tour de France. Van Baarle continues to lead.

Just like that and Alaphilippe is right near the front again. 9km to go

Pogacar has plenty of teammates around him. 

Sagan is not here according to race radio. 

7km to go. 

Less than 4.5km to go until we hit the final ascent.

It's sketchy in the bunch as we see a few riders change their lines around some of the corners. Dillier hits the front for Van der Poel who wants the stage. 

Alpecin are going head to head with Ineos. 5km to go. 

Lots of other riders are just waiting for the climb and the race to really open up. 4km to go.

Mohoric hits the front as we take a tight set of turns. 3.6km to go.

Here comes DSM, Alpecin has slipped a bit. Ineos are still there. 3km to go. 

1km to go until the final climb.

Fraile is on the front for Astana.

Ineos have the numbers. Gaudu looks good to and we're almost on the climb. 

400m to the climb.

Porte is about to take over.

Roglic, Pogacar, Haig, Thomas, all up there. 

And we're onto the climb and Porte takes over.

Van der Poel again. 1.7km to go.

It's a teammate, sorry, but Formolo has a small gap now.

Porte leads again. 1.4km to go.

All the GC riders are here.

Porte still leads.

Quintana 1.2km to go.

Van der Poel catches him. 1km to go.

Van der Poel is on the front.

Colbrelli is still there!

Colbrelli attacks. 

Now Van der Poel.

700m and he's clear.

He could take yellow too.

He's well clear.

Van der Poel just has 200m to go.

Van der Poel wins stage 2 of the Tour de France. 

Pogacar second, Roglic third. 

That's a huge win and he might have yellow after all the bonus seconds he took today.

He took bonus seconds on the first ascent and then more at the finish. He was simply in a different league today. To attack like that twice... just jaw-dropping.

We're just waiting on results for our top-ten for the stage and the GC but Van der Poel is going to be in yellow. I'm just not sure on the margin.

Kelderman was fourth and the GC favourites 8 seconds down on the winner.

Here are our results for the stage and the GC:

1 Mathieu van der Poel (Ned) Alpecin-Fenix 4:18:30
2 Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates 0:00:06
3 Primoz Roglic (Slo) Jumbo-Visma 0:00:06
4 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:06
5 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:00:08
6 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:08
7 Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Jumbo-Visma 0:00:08
8 Sergio Higuita Garcia (Col) EF Education-Nippo 0:00:08
9 Pierre Latour (Fra) TotalEnergies 0:00:08
10 Jack Haig (Aus) Bahrain Victorious 0:00:08

General classification after stage 2

1 Mathieu van der Poel (Ned) Alpecin-Fenix 8:57:25
2 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:00:08
3 Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates 0:00:13
4 Primoz Roglic (Slo) Jumbo-Visma 0:00:14
5 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:24
6 Jack Haig (Aus) Bahrain Victorious 0:00:26
7 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:26
8 Sergio Higuita Garcia (Col) EF Education-Nippo 0:00:26
9 Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Jumbo-Visma 0:00:26
10 David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:00:26

Van der Poel: I have no words. I gambled a little bit and I played everything I got the first time already. I knew I had to get bonus seconds if I wanted the yellow jersey, and I knew it was the last chance to get the yellow jersey. It's incredible.

Here's our stage report, results and photos from today.

Some more from Van der Poel on what this win means:

“You can’t even plan something like this. I just launched my first attack with one lap to go and no one followed. I kept on going until I had the bonus seconds and that was my only and last chance to grab the yellow jersey. To finish it like this is incredible.

"The last 500 meters were really painful but I knew that I had to keep on going as fast as I could just to get the gap. I didn’t know until five minutes after the finish that I had the yellow jersey. It’s unbelievable."

Imagine if he was here how proud he would have been. He isn’t here any more to see but as I said, imagine how proud he would be.

Tour de France: Gamble pays off for emotional Mathieu van der Poel with historic win and yellow jersey.

Tour de France: Geraint Thomas drops 10 places in general classification

Join our live coverage from stage 3, right here.