Draw in the first face-off between Pogacar and Vingegaard. The Slovenian is already the leader

The climb to the Sanctuary of San Luca, overlooking the beautiful city of Bologna, was the setting for Tadej Pogacar's first move to test the form of his rivals for the final victory in the Tour de France 2024. An attack that ended with the possible bluff that Jonas Vingegaard wanted to play, who responded without a hint of doubt to the Slovenian's attack, who takes the lead thanks to his 4th place in yesterday's stage.

Tadej Pogacar is already the leader of the general classification. Vingegaard is not intimidated

Stage for the breakaway of the day on a day complicated by the headwind that made the peloton seek to spend as little energy as possible. This did not prevent us from seeing the first offensive of Tadej Pogacar on the ascent to the wall of San Luca, the usual finish of the Giro dell'Emilia, the most prestigious of the Italian classics in the autumn that precede the dispute of Il Lombardia.

The menu for the second stage of the Tour de France 2024 consisted of a leg-breaking profile day between Cesenatico and Bologna, 199 kilometers that were marked, as we said before, by the strong wind. This caused the breakaway of the day to consolidate very early, with 10 cyclists among whom names like Quentin Pacher, Nelson Oliveria, Cristian Rodríguez, Jonas Abrahamsen, or Kevin Vauquelin stood out.

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The peloton let them go, so much so that the gap quickly shot up to nearly 8 minutes, at which point, on one of the small climbs that dotted the route, UAE Team Emirates took the lead and quickly began to reduce the advantage. However, the fall of two important men, Matteo Jorgenson and Wout van Aert himself, fortunately without consequences, on the approach to the intermediate sprint made them ease off and the advantage of the escapees shot up again to over 9 minutes, indicating that the victory would be up front.

In the first of the two ascents to the sanctuary of San Luca, the breakaway was selected, as is usual, by the sheer strength of each one, with Kevin Vauquelin, Nelson Oliveira, and Jonas Abrahamsen staying ahead. Meanwhile, the peloton climbed this first time without any movements but with the relevant fact that it was Visma-Lease a Bike who took the lead, initially with Wout van Aert at the helm although the Belgian quickly fell back, perhaps feeling the effects of the fall.

The escapees were 4 minutes ahead of the peloton and, at the start of the second ascent to San Luca, Kevin Vauquelin used his climbing skills to easily pull away by simply increasing the pace. Abrahamsen fought not to lose too much ground and stay up there with a chance to compete, but unsuccessfully the gap widened, ensuring the victory in this second stage of the Tour de France 2024 for the Arkéa-B&B Hotels cyclist.

Behind, the same play from the first ascent was repeated, with Visma-Lease a Bike setting a strong pace at the beginning led by Tiesj Benoot, however, no one followed through when he stepped aside from the front, a moment that Adam Yates took advantage of to take the lead and double the effort to the point that in the steepest part of the climb, where the ramps reach 20%, he left the main group with less than 10 riders, with the leader suffering alongside other notable names.

This was the prelude to an announced move that took shape in the extremely violent attack by Tadej Pogacar, who managed to dispel doubts about Vingegaard's condition when the Dane had no choice but to respond and easily stay on the wheel of the UAE Team Emirates cyclist. A gap of about ten seconds opened up, and unlike last year, this time Jonas Vingegaard accepted the challenge and took over, trying to open up the biggest gap possible from the rest of the rivals for the general classification in a truly chilling descent.

In the final part, there were several skirmishes in the peloton, however, the significant one was the move by Remco Evenepoel, who not only jumped in pursuit of Vingegaard and Pogacar, with Richard Carapaz on his wheel, but even managed to catch up with them with the finish line in sight.

 

 

 

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They barely managed a 21-second advantage over the main peloton, enough to cut the 15-second gap with which Romain Bardet entered the finish line yesterday, meaning that Tadej Pogacar, being the best-placed cyclist in the general classification with his 4th place in the first stage, became the new leader of the Tour de France 2024, emulating the development that led him to victory in the Giro d'Italia a couple of months ago.

In any case, this is a very specific climb due to its explosiveness to draw conclusions about the form of the other favorites. We will have to wait for the stage the day after tomorrow, in which the peloton of the Tour de France 2024 will venture into the Alps, with the fearsome Galibier as the main course to draw the first real conclusions about the real form of each one.

Stage 2 Classification

1. Kevin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) 4h43'42''
2. Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X) +36''
3. Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ) +49''
4. Cristian Rodríguez (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) +49''
5. Harold Tejada (Astana) +49''
6. Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) +50''
7. Axel Laurance (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +1'12''
8. Mike Teunissen (Intermarché-Wanty) +1'33''
9. Hugo Houle (Israel-PremierTech) +1'36''
10. Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) +2'21''

General Classification

1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 9h53'30''
2. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) +00''
3. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) +00''
4. Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) +06''
5. Romain Bardet (DSM-Firmenich-PostNL) +21''
6. Maxim Van Gils (Lotto-Dstny) +21''
7. Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers) +21''
8. Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious) +21''
9. Tom Pidcock (INEOS Grenadiers) +21''
10. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) +21''