Victor Lafay (Cofidis) claimed victory on stage 2 of the Tour de France with a perfectly-timed move beneath the flamme rouge in San Sebastian.
The Frenchman attacked with intent from the elite group that had formed over the climb of the Jaizkibel in the finale, and he held off a fast-closing Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) to claim Cofidis’ first stage victory since 2008.
Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) finished safely in the front group to retain the yellow jersey, but his teammate Pogacar was the big winner among the overall contenders. He moves up to second overall, 6 seconds off Adam Yates, thanks to the 12 seconds of time bonuses he picked up across the day.
Pogacar out-sprinted Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) to the time bonus atop the Jaizkibel, where the two outstanding favourites for the Tour cruised clear of everybody else. The paid had a lead of 15 seconds on the descent but the move petered out when Vingegaard declined Pogacar’s entreaties to come through and help. Vingegaard finished the day 6th overall, 17 seconds behind Adam Yates.
Vingegaard’s teammate Van Aert was the favourite for stage victory from the 25-strong group that formed on the run-in to San Sebastian, and the Belgian took it upon himself to mark moves by Tom Pidcock (Ineos) and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) in the closing kilometres.
Van Aert bided his time for the sprint, however, when Lafay made his smart move, and although he proved the quickest, he ran out of road and endured the frustration of second place.
The stage was animated by a three-man break led by Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), who cemented his lead in the king of the mountains jersey before he was swept up on the Jaizkibel.
The tough final climb forced another selection among the general classification contenders, with Ben O’Connor (AG2R-Citroën), Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) and Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) all conceding ground to Pogacar et al.
| Pos | RiderTeam | Time | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Lafay VictorCofidis | 04:46:39 | |
| 02 | van Aert WoutJumbo-Visma | + 00 | |
| 03 | Pogacar TadejUAE Team Emirates | + 00 | |
| 04 | Pidcock TomINEOS Grenadiers | + 00 | |
| 05 | Bilbao PelloBahrain Victorious | + 00 | |
| 06 | Skjelmose MattiasLidl-Trek | + 00 | |
| 07 | Woods MichaelIsrael-Premier Tech | + 00 | |
| 08 | Bardet RomainTeam dsm-firmenich | + 00 | |
| 09 | Teuns DylanIsrael-Premier Tech | + 00 | |
| 10 | Hindley JaiBORA-hansgrohe | + 00 | |
| 11 | Cras SteffTotalEnergies | + 00 | |
| 12 | Ciccone GiulioLidl-Trek | + 00 | |
| 13 | Bettiol AlbertoEF Education-EasyPost | + 00 | |
| 14 | Benoot TiesjJumbo-Visma | + 00 | |
| 15 | Buchmann EmanuelBORA-hansgrohe | + 00 | |
| 16 | Haig JackBahrain Victorious | + 00 | |
| 17 | Landa MikelBahrain Victorious | + 00 | |
| 18 | Vingegaard JonasJumbo-Visma | + 00 | |
| 19 | Rodriguez CarlosINEOS Grenadiers | + 00 | |
| 20 | Yates SimonTeam Jayco-AlUla | + 00 |