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Tour de France Femmes stage 2 LIVE - Two rider break gets away after rapid start

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The peloton race 110km from Brest and finish in Quimper tackling four climbs along the way

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50km to go

Maud Rijnbeek (VolkerWessels) is trying to bridge the gap to Chabbey and Smulders.

New attacks coming in the peloton led by VolkerWessels. That is followed by pretty much everyone. The gap to Smulders and Chabbey is dropping again.

Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) has missed the split and is in a group including De Jong and Santesteban at around 44" back on the main bunch.

Movistar have now taken over the control of the peloton. Perhaps Liane Lippert is feeling better from her crash yesterday.

Couple of issues for riders involving the fans. Christina Schweinberger (Fenix-Deceuninck) has a plastic bag wrapped around her rear wheel and a Winspace-Orange-Seal rider getting caught in a flag.

The peloton has shrunk massively after the Menez Quelerc'h climb but Smulders and Chabbey are still clear by 19" on the bunch.

QoM (Menez Quelerc'h)

Multiple riders struggling at the back of the peloton as the gap is tumbling to the breakaway with FDJ-Suez, Liv-AlUla-Jayco and Visma-Lease a Bike on the front.

Onto the first climb of the day, the 3km category 3 climb of the Menez Quelerc'h. 3, 2 and 1 point(s) available.

Mechanical

Intermediate Sprint (Châteaulin)

Unfortunately, Marjolein van 't Geloof (Arkea-B&B Hotels) has been distanced by the peloton.

Crash

Multiple teams now come to the front as the sprinters get ready for the intermediate sprint with 7km to go. Weirdly, Movistar hit the front despite having Biannic in the break.

Visma-Lease a Bike have taken full control of the peloton now with the intermediate sprint just 10km away.

The riders roll through the feed zone. Gap to Koch and Biannic drops under a minute.

80km to go

Faulkner and De Jong are over a minute and a half off the back of the peloton with 5 other riders.

The gap is starting to come down as EF Education-Oatly, Certizit, Visma-Lease a Bike, Live-AlUla-Jayco, Movistar, Uno-X Mobility and AG Insurance-Soudal battle to control the peloton.

The gap sits at 1'15" up to the break of Koch and Biannic.

Faulkner went down with Dominika Włodarczyk (UAE Team ADQ) as Elena Pirrone (Roland), Sylvie Swinkels (Roland) and Thalita De Jong (Human Powered Health) are gtting back in after their crash.

Crash!

Molenaar was caught by a new counter attack including Pauline Ferrand-Prevot (Visma-Lease a Bike) but that is swiftly closed down.

Two teams who have lost their main leaders involved in the break today. Movistar do still have Liane Lippert but she crashed hard yesterday so may struggle to perform.

Koch and Biannic now have 1'18" on the peloton and 1'11" over Molenaar.

Crash!

Laura Molenaar (VolkerWessels) launches clear of the peloton to try and bridge to Koch and Biannnic.

Teruel sits up and is waiting for the peloton and is caught. Quickly followed by new moves.

Alba Teruel (Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi) is the rider trying to bridge the gap to the two leaders.

One rider is trying to bridge to gap to Koch and Biannic with the gap at just over 40".

The gap to Biannic and Koch is growing still to 35" over the peloton.

In the jerseys today:

100km to go

Most combative rider of yesterday, Franziska Koch (Picnic-PostNL), is at it again as she joins Aude Biannic (Movistar) on the latest attack.

A new attack goes with two riders getting a gap.

Jastrab caught by the peloton as riders are already struggling at the back and losing touch.

The counter move is caught with about 5" up to Jastrab.

Three riders are trying to bridge to Jastrab but no-one has a good gap on the bunch.

The team of yellow jersey Marianne Vos, Visma-Lease a Bike, are leading the peloton with Megan Jastrab (Picnic-PostNL) solo out front with a small gap.

New attackers at the front of the peloton as the early break tries to form.

The weather is cloudy and sitting round 20°c with a possibility of rain.

Immediately attacks come with Cofidis being the first to launch but it doesn't last long and the bunch is together again.

110.4km to go

Multiple riders calling for the team car with issues including Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) and Marie Le Net (FDJ-Suez).

Roughly 15 minutes to the official start.

Early mechanical for Letizia Borghesi (EF Education-Oatly) but it is a long neutral today of over 11km, so the start shouldn't be a standing start like yesterday.

With Marlen Reusser (Movistar) abandoning the race yesterday and Charlotte Kool (Picnic-PostNL) DNSing today, that leaves 152 riders on the start line today.

Neutral start

The first action point of today's stage come after just over 45km of racing with the intermediate sprint in Châteaulin.

It is a special day for Kerbaol today as she starts in her hometown of Brest...

One non-starter today is the sprinting star and winner of two stages at this race last year, Charlotte Kool (Picnic-PostNL), leaves the race after not recovering from her crash in the recent Baloise Ladies Tour.

The neutral start is in around 10 minutes.

Yesterday's stage gave some surprises. Elisa Longo-Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) being over a minute down in GC after bonus seconds was not on most people's bingo cards.

To have a deeper dive into today's stage, have a look at our stage two preview...

There is a good list of articles to catch up on in our newsroom today. Here are a select few...

Today's stage starts in the home town of Cedrine Kerbaol (EF Educaton-Oatly), Brest, and finishes in Quimper after 110.4km.

Bonjour and welcome to our live updates of the Tour de France Femmes stage two from Brest to Quimper.

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