Del Toro masters Montjuïc with Pogacar's help to win Tour de France stage 2

Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) mastered the Montjuïc circuit, seizing an enthralling stage 2 of the Tour de France in Barcelona ahead of his teammate Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).

Touted to be a day for the GC contenders, the stage was built around a punchy circuit in Barcelona, featuring the Côte du Château de Montjuïc, which was set to be tackled three times. 

Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) suffered a mechanical on the run-in to the final circuit, forcing a nervy chase, but that didn’t deter the Frenchman from featuring in the finale. 

The first ascent of the climb saw the GC contenders swarm to the front of the peloton, and the work of Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), who delivered a man-of-the-match performance, which saw the peloton whittle down to around 50 riders. 

On the second ascent, it was a combination of Bruno Armirail (Visma | Lease a Bike) and McNulty who contributed to a strong tempo, setting the race up for a final-lap showdown. 

Nobody was able to break free in the final lap, and it would come down to the final sprint with Del Toro seemingly leading out the sprint before it became clear that he had opened enough of an advantage to take the stage ahead of Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).

Meanwhile, race leader Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike), who started the stage with a twelve-second advantage over Pogačar, successfully defended the yellow jersey, finishing fourth on the stage. 

Vingegaard's lead over Pogačar is now six seconds, while Evenepoel sits third overall at 15 seconds. Stage winner Del Toro also rises to fourth, just one second behind Evenepoel.

For Del Toro, this stage victory in his first-ever Tour road stage marks his thirtieth professional victory, and tenth of 2026.

The consensus at the start in Tarragona was that this would prove to be a day for the general classification contenders, but that didn’t dissuade a trio of attackers from forging clear shortly after the stage got under way.

German champion Felix Engelhardt (Jayco-AlUla) escaped with Alex Molenaar (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Frank van den Broek (Picnic-PostNL), and they established a lead with surprising ease.

That was perhaps in part due to an early crash that saw Biniam Girmay (NSN) and Maxim Van Gils (Red Bull) among the fallers and led to a temporary truce in the peloton.

The escapees built up a lead of 3:30 on the flat run along the coast back towards Barcelona, with Pinarello Q36.5 leading the chase on behalf of Tom Pidcock. That lead would gradually be eroded as the afternoon progressed, and it dipped inside two minutes by the intermediate sprint in Viladecans with82km to go.

Girmay won the sprint for fourth there ahead of Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) and Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), but the race took on a new complexion shortly afterwards as UAE Team Emirates-XRG took up the pace-making ahead of the category 2 climb to Begues.

Molenaar led the break over the top, but their lead was down to just half a minute, while UAE’s brisk pace put a number of fast men into difficulty, including Arnaud De Lie (Lotto Intermarché).

With 60km to go, there was unwelcome drama for UAE when Isaac del Toro suffered a puncture and was then forced to wait for the second team car after an apparent mix-up. The Mexican champion found himself with a two-minute deficit on the bunch and an unwanted extra effort to get back into the race ahead of the finishing circuit, but Del Toro remained a cool customer and made a swift return.

The next GC leader to have an issue was Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM), who was forced to change his bike with 40km remaining on the fast run-in to the final circuit. The Decathlon leader initially hopped onto the bike of his teammate Aurélien Paret-Peintre to return to the peloton, before swapping back to his own machine and surviving a near-miss with a stationary team car on his second chase to the bunch shortly before the first ascent of the Montjuïc climb.

Lidl-Trek took control of the pace into the base of the climb, before Pogačar, Vingegaard, and Evenepoel swarmed to the front with their teammates. Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) led the peloton up the steep gradients with Pogačar on his wheel, as the main field immediately started to fracture with former two-time world champion Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor) among those distanced. 

McNulty continued to lead over the crest, onto the descent and up the final rise to the finish line for the first time, with the peloton around 50 riders in size, as Kévin Vauquelin (Netcompany-Ineos) and Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) found themselves trying to chase on in separate splits.

McNulty continued to lead over the crest, onto the descent and up the final rise to the finish line for the first time, with the peloton around 50 riders in size. The second ascent saw a strong but controlled tempo from the UAE and Visma domestiques, as it became clear that the race would be decided in the third and final lap.

Tiesj Benoot (Decathlon CMA CGM) led onto the final ascent with 4km remaining, before Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) took over on the steepest sections. Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) attacked towards the summit but couldn't break free before Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) tried to counterattack, but it would come down to a sprint.