Tour de France 2023 - Stage 2 preview

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Stage 2: Vitoria-Gasteiz to San Sebastián

Date: July 2, 2023

Distance: 208.9km

Stage type: hilly

Tour de France Stage 2 features more hilly terrain in the Basque Country, following a 209km route from Vitoria-Gasteiz to Donostia San Sebastián on the coast.  

After staring on a plateau, the route will head to the sea, and over four relatively easy climbs before the city of Irun and the major difficulty of the day, the Jaizkibel climb, famous from the Donostia San Sebastián Klasikoa.

For this stage, the 8km ascent of Jaizkibel will be climbed in the opposite direction, with the final three kilometres averaging around 8% grade. After cresting the category 2 climb, the route races down to the finish line, only 20km away. 

The rider that tops the climb first has a good chance to win the stage, and even maybe take over the maillot jaune, as once again time bonuses will be awarded to the top three finishers of the stage

Stage 1 winner, Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) leads the general classification with an eight-second lead on his brother Simon Yates (Jayco-Alula), and 18 seconds on his teammate Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates).

Defending champion Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe), David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) and Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious), are all at 22 seconds down.