Tour de France: Vauquelin claims victory in stage two while Tadej Pogacar secures the yellow jersey

• Jonas Vingegaard counters a late attack by Tadej Pogacar.
• Kévin Vauquelin joins Bardet as a French stage winner.

Tadej Pogacar challenged defending Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard with a bold attack in the hills around Bologna, securing the yellow jersey on stage two of the 2024 race.

“It was more important to test myself [than Vingegaard],” Pogacar said after claiming the maillot jaune. “It’s good to be in yellow. You don’t say no to yellow.”

Vingegaard was the only one able to match Pogacar’s intense acceleration, 11km from the finish, during the second climb to San Luca’s basilica, which overlooks the Italian city.

As Pogacar continued his impressive form from the Giro, any doubts about Vingegaard’s race fitness were dispelled when the Visma-Lease a Bike rider skillfully chased the Slovenian to the finish.

In the final meters of the stage, they were joined by fellow podium contenders Remco Evenepoel of Soudal Quick-Step and Richard Carapaz of EF Education-EasyPost. All four riders share the same overall time, but Pogacar claimed the yellow jersey due to his higher stage placings.

Ahead of them, Kévin Vauquelin, riding for the Arkéa-B&B Hotels team, secured the second French victory of the weekend by winning the stage after breaking away in the final kilometers.

“It was hard for me, but I’m really happy. I had a perfect day out in the breakaway,” Vauquelin said, adding that he hadn’t considered winning the stage until the last moment. “I wanted to participate in the Tour; that was the original dream. To now win a stage – that’s amazing for the team and me. It just makes me incredibly happy.”

While the French celebrated back-to-back wins, with veteran Romain Bardet claiming the stage and overall race lead on Saturday, there was also disappointment as the dsm-firmenich PostNL rider lost the yellow jersey to the flying Pogacar.

Asked if he could have attempted to win the stage, Pogacar said: “In this heat, it would be unnecessary to exhaust my teammates. Sure, we could go for the stage, but it could backfire at some point. We just let there be a natural selection.”

Among those distanced by Pogacar and Vingegaard was Geraint Thomas of Ineos Grenadiers. Any notion that the Welshman might be the British team’s secret weapon was dispelled on the second climb to the basilica as he fell behind.

The stage is now set for a heavyweight showdown between Pogacar and Vingegaard, with Evenepoel and Carapaz in supporting roles, on Tuesday’s fourth day of racing to Valloire, over the 2,642-metre Col du Galibier.

Despite his hospitalization after a high-speed crash in April, Vingegaard’s descending skills appeared fully intact as he sped into Bologna in Pogacar’s wake. He will need them on Tuesday during the descent from the Galibier to the finish line.

Vingegaard’s resilience against Pogacar, just under three months after a 12-day hospital stay, has been a relief for his Visma-Lease team, which continues to face challenges.

The team’s plan to use a fully branded “data van” to relay information to their managers and riders as a “central collection point of real-time data during the Tour” was blocked by a coordinated effort from the UCI and Tour organizers, ASO.

Meanwhile, Mark Cavendish continued to struggle behind the main contenders. Although Sunday’s stage was less grueling than Saturday’s opener, where he vomited while riding, he still faced difficulties.

The brutal start to this Tour is evident, with the first stage leaving Cavendish “seeing stars” and finishing nearly 40 minutes behind winner Bardet, prompting historians to check records for the largest gaps on the Tour’s opening day.

On Sunday, Cavendish was guided through Emilia Romagna’s rolling hills by four of his Astana Qazaqstan teammates. Despite finishing 25 minutes behind Vauquelin, he remained comfortably within the day’s time limit.

Between Bologna and the Galibier, the flat roads leading to stage three’s finish in Turin present Cavendish with an opportunity to break the stage win record he shares with Eddy Merckx. In the shadow of the Stadio Olimpico, Cavendish knows this may be one of his best chances, given the cumulative fatigue from the Alpine climbs and the highly competitive sprints.

If he has recovered from Saturday’s ordeal, he will know it’s time to seize the moment.