Mathieu van der Poel powers to win and yellow jersey on Tour de France stage 2

Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) powered to victory in the uphill sprint on stage 2 of the Tour de France after a thrilling final 10km, taking the yellow jersey off the shoulders of his teammate Jasper Philipsen.

The Flying Dutchman launched his sprint from the front of a reduced group at the summit of the uphill finish in Boulogne-sur-Mer, beating Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) into second and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) into third. It marks successive wins for Alpecin-Deceuninck at the start of this Tour de France, and the second time in his career that Van der Poel will pull on the yellow jersey, having done so on stage 2 in 2021 atop the Mûr-de-Bretagne.

The match was lit on the Côte de Saint-Étienne-au-Mont, forming a select group of around 10 riders featuring Pogačar, Vingegaard, Evenepoel and Van der Poel, and the race never settled until the finish with many attacks. A group of 26 riders finished in the front group, also featuring Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) and Primož Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), but there were plenty of riders who had lost time in the general classification.

“I was super difficult, the final was actually harder than I thought,” Van der Poel said. “I was really motivated. It’s been four years since I won my first stage on the Tour de France, so it was about time I won a second one.

“Of course, people put me as a favourite, but if you see which riders were in front on the climb, I did a really good job to be there. They predicted headwind on the climbs, so I thought [Jasper Philipsen] would have a chance, but like I said, the climbs were harder than I expected, it was a really hard pace as well.

“It’s a dream for a team, the first two days I think, anything else that comes is a bonus.”

After a windy and chaotic opening stage in Lille, the weather looked set to play an important role once more. The start of stage 2 was delayed by 15 minutes due to adverse weather conditions and the traffic impact, which meant many teams were late to the sign-on in Lauwin-Planque.

After a flurry of early attacks, Brent Van Moer (Lotto), Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility), Yevgeniy Fedorov (XDS Astana), and, for the second day running, Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) forged clear in the early break. Alpecin-Deceuninck and Intermarché-Wanty put riders on the front of the peloton to ensure the gap never went much higher than three minutes.

Just like on stage 1, there was another crash involving two breakaway riders, as with 165 kilometres, Fedorov and Leknessund, both donning special jerseys as national champions respectively, slid out on a wet bend in isolated incidents, but thankfully, both were unscathed and quickly rejoined Van Moer and Armirail. Leknessund would later snatch the first mountain point of the stage on the Côte de Cavron-Saint-Martin.

With 100km to go, there was a crash in the peloton which included Fred Wright (Bahrain-Victorious), Eddie Dunbar (Jayco AlUla), Jordan Jegat (TotalEnergies) and Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto), who ended up in a grass verge on the side of the road. All riders eventually returned to the peloton, but Wright and Van Eetvelt in particular looked to have taken the worst of things.

Fedorov led the break through the intermediate sprint with 54km to go. Behind there was some drama among the sprinters, with Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) and Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) visibly frustrated with one another after the sprint, and the same can be said with Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) of Paul Penhoët (Groupama-FDJ). In any case, Milan won the sprint from the peloton to claim 11 points, ahead of Tim Merlier. 

The breakaway was caught shortly after the intermediate sprint, and the race came to life on the approach to the Côte du Haut Pichot with around 30km remaining as Wout van Aert and Tim Wellens hit the front, positioning their team leaders and stretching out the bunch. On the climb, there was a crash involving Milan and Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers). The increase in pace and crash on the climb saw a split in the peloton. The majority of the riders who were caught behind the split were able to return, however, while Wellens took the two points at the top of the climb ahead of Pogačar.

Groupama-FDJ and Visma Lease a Bike led onto the following climb of the Côte de Saint-Étienne-au-Mont, setting a ferocious pace. The race split into pieces here, forming a select group of around seven riders, including Pogačar, Vingegaard, Evenepoel, Van der Poel, Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ), Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and Matteo Jorgenson (Visma | Lease a Bike), who set the pace towards the summit. A few more riders joined over the summit, including Pogačar’s teammate Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and the select group held a lead of around 10 seconds over a larger group, but the majority of the sprinters were distanced, including race leader Philipsen.

Things came together again at the base of the Côte d'Outreau with just over 6km remaining before the group began to fracture all over again due to the pace set by Narvaez. Vauquelin attacked from 200 metres from the summit, and Oscar Onley was the first to react, with Pogačar lurking in third.

Over the summit, Vingegaard was the one who launched a strong attack - an aggressive style of racing which we have been seeing more of from the Dane in recent times - and he was naturally marked by Evenepoel and Pogačar. On the run-in to the final uphill drag, there were moves once more from Vauquelin, Jorgenson, Lutsenko and even Florian Lipowitz, who slipped away but was caught shortly after the flamme rouge.

Inside the final kilometre, the road began to rise, as João Almeida led his team leader Pogačar up the lower slopes before a classic attack from Julian Alaphilippe with 600 metres remaining. It proved to be too early from the former double world champion, who peeled off from the front, leaving Van der Poel on the front and with the responsibility to launch the sprint with Pogačar on his wheel.

Van der Poel well and truly obliged, and round the final curve with 100 metres remaining, he launched an explosive sprint and nobody was able to come around him. He claimed the second Tour de France stage win of his career, four years after his first – which had also come on stage 2 and rewarded him with the yellow jersey. Pogačar and Vingegaard rounded out the top three, with Roglič, Evenepoel, Almeida and Jorgenson all finishing safely in the front group.

Mathieu van der Poel now leads the Tour de France by four seconds over Pogačar in seconds, with Vingegaard third at six seconds.