Virtual Tour de France stage 2 – Live coverage

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of stage 2 of the Virtual Tour de France. The peloton will head uphill today as they tackle the Watopia mountan route.

We're running a bit late today due to technical gremlins, but everything looks ok now.

The women's race has gotten underway, and they're already climbing this 9.5km, 4 per cent mountain.

The peloton has already broken up. They're 13 minutes into this race.

NTT's stage predictor has Stine Borgli (fdj), Liane Lippert (Sunweb) and Elisa Balsamo (Valcar) as the favourites for today.

Here's an animated look at today's course.

Enrica Magnaldi (Ceratizit-WNT) and Joscelin Lowden (Drops) are up there towards the front. They both performed strongly in the hills yesterday.

There's a group of around 20 riders up front at the moment.

Riders are being whittled away under the pace. Katie Hall (Boels Dolmans) drops back on a steep section.

19km remaining

Now they hit a flatter section – this isn't a steady gradient all the way up.

They're up past the virtual snowline now. Thee laed group is thinning down to fewer than ten riders. Magnaldi is pushing the pace.

Here are the riders towards the top of the climb. Theye've just crested it now.

You can watch the race live too, of course. Check out our how to watch & VPN guide here.

Magnaldi took the QOM at the top, ahead of Lowden and Cecilie Uttrup-Ludwig (FDJ).

15km remaining

The riders are still climbing after the QOM banner – it's even steeper here. 

Uttrup Ludwig is pushing on with Magnaldi in pursuit. The top ten is separated by 25 seconds now.

It's really steep stuff up here as the two leaders battle it out.

The riders can freewheel a little now as they hit the downhill.

Kristen Faulkner (Tibco-SVB) is chasing the two leaders on her own and she's almost back with them now.

A group consisting of Lowden, Lauren Stephens, Sarah Gigante (both Tibco-SVB) and
Pauliena Rooijakkers (CCC-Liv) are chasing six seconds back. Then it's another 24 seconds to Ella Harris (Canyon-SRAM).

8km remaining

So three up front now and four chasing, now ten seconds back.

Uttrup Ludwig is wearing sunglasses while riding her trainer indoors. Maybe her tv brightness is up too high.

The leaders pass over a small gravel section to a wooden bridge and then back onto the tarmac. A bit like the opening team time trial at the 2015 Vuelta, this.

5km remaining

The chasers are starting to attack each other now.

It's Lowden and Stephens on the attack. They're closing in on the leaders.

The two groups are coming together now.

Three Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank riders are up there – Kristen Faulkner, Lauren Stephens and Sarah Gigante.

Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ-Nouvelle Acquitaine Futuroscope), Enrica Magnaldi (Ceratizit-WNT), Joscelin Lowden (Drops) Pauliena Rooijakkers (CCC-Liv) are up there too.

3km remaining

The seven-woman group will contest the finish, as Harris is 44 seconds down.

Uttrup Ludwig takes the sprint point.

Uttrup Ludwig dropped an undraftable power-up and has gone on the attack!

2km remaining

The group came back to her quickly, though.

1km remaining

Final kilometre now! It should be a sprint finish.

Rooijakkers and Gigante dropped off the back as those attacks flew.

It's Magnaldi, Faulkner, Stephens, Uttrup Ludwig and Lowden for the win.

The camera cut away to show Magnaldi during the sprint, but it was a close one.

Lauren Stephens took it!

Lauren Stephens (Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank) is the winner of stage 2 of the Virtual Tour de France.

A shot of that sprint finish.

Lowden and Magnaldi made up the podium spots. Full top ten coming soon.

1 Lauren Stephens (USA) Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank 00:47:32

2 Joscelin Lowden (GBr) Drops

3 Enrica Magnaldi (Ita) Ceratizit-WNT

4 Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Den) FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope

5 Kristen Faulkner (USA) Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank

6 Pauliena Rooijakkers (Ned) CCC-Liv 00:00:15

7 Sarah Gigante (Aus) Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank

8 Ella Harris (NZl) Canyon-SRAM

9 Anna Henderson (GBr) Team Sunweb

10 Krista Doebel-Hickok (USA) Rally Cycling

Next up is the men's race. NTT lead the yellow jersey rankings with 80 points, Rally are in second with 79, while Alpecin-Fenix are third on 72.

There are some big names on this men's stage 2...

Geraint Thomas (Team Ineos), Bob Jungels and Remi Cavagna (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Rigoberto Uran (EF Pro Cycling), Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix),
Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), Wout Poels (Bahrain McLaren), Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) and Tiesj Benoot (Team Sunweb) are all taking part.

And they're off! The men's second stage is underway.

There's a flat section to kick things off before the climbing starts.

Louis Meintjes wears yellow after his teammate Ryan Gibbons won stage 1.

25km remaining

Still all together at the moment.

Mauri Vansevenant is up front for Deceuncinck-QuickStep. The 21-year-old only joined the team a few days ago. He's the son of ex-pro and three-time lanterne rouge Wim Vansevenant.

Geraint Thomas is pushing the pace now, strteching out the peloton as they hit the climb.

Meintjes, Van der Pol, Ben O'Connor are all up towards the front after Thomas dropped back into the peloton.

21km remaining

Van der Poel is now dropping as the pace goes up on the cliimb. He's out the back.

Domen Novak (Bahrain McLaren) and Alexis Gougeard (AG2R La Mondiale) are up front now, pushing onwards into the mist.

Thomas is back to the front now as they hit the virtual snowline.

19km remaining

It looks like there's around 20 riders up front at thte moment. Woods, Geoghegan Hart, Piccoli, O'Connor, Meintjes – it's all climbers in the lead group.

The riders are heading downhill now, but they'll be climbing again soon as they near the top of the KOM. There'll be more steep road after that, too.

15km remaining

Freddy Ovett and James Piccoli (Israel Start-Up Nation) led the way over the KOM, with Piccoli taking the points over the top. Now the even steeper stuff starts

Michael Woods (EF Pro Cycling) has taken it up on the front on the steep section. The Canadian leads Tao Geoghegan Hart (Team Ineos)

15 seconds between Woods in first and Gianni Vermeersch (Alpecin-Fenix) in tenth.

Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) leads the way down the descent.

12km remaining

Ovett and Geoghegan Hart are up there too. Those three and Woods have separated themselves from the rest by seven seconds.

Edet, Woods, Ovett and Geoghegan Hart are up front, six seconds up on the chasers.

7km remaining

And now the chasers are back. Patrick Bevin (CCC) is perhaps the fastest man up there.

It looks like the front group is around 12 riders now.

Julien Bernard (Trek-Segafredo) and Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) have put in an attack on the flat.

5km remaining

They don't get much more than a few metres though.

Geoghegan Hart took on Stefan De Bod for the sprint – too close to call.

2km remaining

Some attacks are flying but nobody is getting a gap. It should be another sprint finish!

1km remaining

Final kilometre now. They're still all together

Bevin has gone long! Over 400 meters out.

Ovett and Woods fly past just before the line though! That was a close one.

Julien Bernard was also up there. Too close to call at the moment.

Bernard has won it!

Here's the shot of that close finish. Bernard just about edged it ahead of Ovett and Edet with Woods in fourth.

1 Julian Bernard (Fra) Trek-Segafredo 00:41:12

2 Freddy Ovett (GBr) Israel Start-Up Nation

3 Nicolas Edet (Fra) Cofidis

4 Michael Woods (Can) EF Pro Cycling

5 Patrick Bevin (NZl) CCC Team 00:00:01

6 Stefan De Bod (Saf) NTT Pro Cycling 00:00:02

7 Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Trek-Segafredo

8 Louis Meintjes (Saf) NTT Pro Cycling

9 Tao Geoghegan Hart (GBr) Team Ineos

10 Gianni Veremeersch (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix

In the women's race, Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank have taken the yellow and green jersey, while Drops have the polka dot jersey and Canyon-SRAM have the white jersey.

In the men's race, NTT lead the yellow and white jersey standings.

Our reports on the men's and women's races are up. Check them out for a rundown on what happened today.

That's all from us today. The Virtual Tour de France will be back next weekend for stages 3 and 4 in Zwift's new 'France' world, on the R.G.V and Casse-Pattes routes.

Thanks for joining us for this weekend's live coverage!