The second day of the Tour of France has become a true Danish folk festival on the roads of Zealand.
From the start of the stage in Roskilde to the finish in Nyborg, fans lined the roadside for the entire distance of 202 kilometers – apart from the bridge over the Great Belt, of course, which was closed to fans.
However, the crossing of the peloton itself provided extremely impressive pictures even without spectators – albeit without the sporting value that the tour organizers had hoped for in advance.
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However, the second day of the tour offered some sporting insights even without wind edge action.
Great Belt, falls and frenetic fans: Stage 2 turns into a spectacle
Here are three things that stood out:
1. Jakobsen removes all doubts
Fabio Jakobsen withstood the huge pressure and won in the first mass sprint of his first Tour de France. Two years after his horrific fall on the Tour of Poland, the Dutchman made sure that critics of the tour nomination of his team, Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl, were immediately taken the wind out of their sails right from the start.
Voigt and Bengsch: Lefevere did everything right
The team management around Patrick Lefevere had not taken the 34-time Tour stage winner Mark Cavendish to the Tour despite his top form – which he once again impressively demonstrated last weekend by winning the British Championships – in order to give youngster Jakobsen the full power for the sprints to assure support.
After all, the future belongs to the Dutchman and he has already proven several times this season that he is the fastest man in the peloton in pure sprints. In order to justify his advantage over Cavendish on the largest possible stage, Jakobsen had to deliver immediately on Saturday.
The way he asserted himself in the Nyborg sprint was all the more impressive, even though Wout Van Aert and Mads Pedersen were still well ahead of him with 50 meters to go. “Diamonds are created under pressure,” said Jakobsen at the winners’ press conference. “I deal well with pressure and know that the team and my family believe in me. Ultimately, I’m the one who puts the most pressure on me.”
Jakobsen speechless after the tour stage win: “Dreamed of it for 15 years”
But the 25-year-old didn’t shy away from commenting on his team-mate’s absence either: “I think we both deserve to be here. He’s been a huge role model for me over the last 15 years. He’s a legend,” said Jakobsen. “I’m just grateful to have gotten my place in the team – and while some people may think I’ve taken his place, I’m pretty sure he too enjoyed my win at home today.”
2. The wind does what it wants
For days, when looking at the 2nd stage of the tour, everything revolved around the crossing over the Great Belt on the last 20 kilometers of the section. There, the experts agreed, it would be dramatic. In the wind, the peloton would split into several parts and one of the overall winners might lose a lot of time.
The drivers were correspondingly nervous all day: Before every change of direction during the stage, which constantly ran along the coast, the peloton accelerated drastically in the fight for the first positions, only to then find out after the bend that the wind wasn’t that strong again side blew that a wind edge situation could have arisen. And so the pace dropped again and again. And when the dreaded bridge over the Great Belt was finally reached, the air was finally gone.
Analysis: That’s why there was no action despite the wind
“Cycling is sometimes a bit strange. 180 kilometers it’s just nervous, extremely strenuous driving. And then on the last 15 kilometers on the bridge there is suddenly a coffee ride,” said Maximilian Schachmann from Team Bora – hansgrohe at the finish.
The direction of the wind was the main reason why there wasn’t the hoped-for action on the huge bridge. He blew the peloton head-on. The field of riders was correspondingly slow and small groups with an attack would have had little chance of breaking away.
3. Pogacar and his team are vulnerable
Jumbo – Visma and the Ineos Grenadiers should have been particularly displeased that the expected wind edge race on the 2nd stage to Nyborg did not take place. The two top teams around the favorites Primoz Roglic, Jonas Vingegaard, Adam Yates and Geraint Thomas impressed with dominant performances on Saturday. Both teams rode very closely and compactly at the front of the field all day and were always ready for the big explosion. If the wind had torn the peloton apart, they would have definitely been in the first group.
But after the stage, the new wearer of the yellow jersey, Wout Van Aert, had to take stock: “There was actually never a chance of a wind crest.” For his team Jumbo – Visma, stage 2 was one of the best and, above all, few chances to put top favorite Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) under pressure.
On the one hand, that must have been frustrating, but on the other hand, the second day also brought the realization that the UAE Team Emirates from Pogacar, which is very well positioned for the mountains, seems to be very vulnerable, especially on the flatter days of the first week of the tour.
Because while Jumbo – Visma and Ineos Grenadiers always drove with the entire team strength at the front and Bora – hansgrohe with Marco Haller and Nils Politt always took good care of Aleksandr Vlasov in the front rows, Pogacar was often alone or with at most one helper at his Page – Mikkel Bjerg.
That was close! Pogačar artistically prevents a fall
The Slovenian almost got the receipt with 2.5 kilometers to go. Because when there was a mass fall, Pogacar was only just able to prevent himself from going down. He touched the left rail and his tires burst on the barrier posts as the mass crash happened right next to and behind him. That would have gone very wrong for the defending champion by a hair’s breadth.
“Fortunately, none of us were there, although… ‘fortunately’ – we also forced that ourselves with our good positioning,” Van Aert summed up that he and his Jumbo – Visma team made themselves clear during the course of the day did better than the UAE competition.
Mass fall on the bridge! Lampaert in yellow goes down
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