A long and gruelling stage two of the Tour de France ended with more excitement as Mathieu Van der Poel sprinted to the line ahead of Tadej Pogacar.
Van der Poel took the yellow jersey from Jasper Philipsen having won just his second ever stage at the Tour de France, while Jonas Vingegaard finished third behind defending champion Pogacar.
It was largely a day of tactical positioning and endurance, as an early breakaway of four riders set the pace for the first few hours until they were swallowed up by the peloton. The big hitters, after biding their time in the peloton, emerged late in the race, with Florian Lipowitz, Kevin Vauquelin, Matteo Jorgenson and Vingegaard all taking turns to attack a few kilometeres from the finish. But it was another perfect day for Alpecin-Deceuninck, who helped Van der Poel to the finish and made it two wins from two in a hugely impressive start to the Tour.
Stage three of the Tour de France is a reprieve for the pure sprinters after Sunday’s lumpy, constantly up-and-down parcours.
Staying in the north of France, stage three is a 178km run from Valenciennes to Dunkerque, with the finish line near the Calais coast. It’s a largely flat day in the saddle but for the return of the category-four climb of Mont Cassel, so important to the Tour’s organisers that they’ve included it twice, on both stage one and three.
It’s the only categorised ascent of the day, 2.3km at an average gradient of 3.8%, but coming within the final 30km of the stage it could yet cause problems for the less climbing-inclined members of the bunch.
After Mont Cassel the road flattens out again for the run-in to Dunkerque, but if the climb doesn’t shake things up, the possibility of crosswinds on the flat, exposed roads certainly will.
Any echelons that form will present a nightmare for the GC teams, who will need to be switched on all day to prevent their protected riders being caught out on the wrong side of a split, and if the wind is blowing that will radically alter the entire dynamic of the stage: expect plenty of jangling nerves in the bunch and a huge fight for positioning.
Route map and profile
Start time
Stage three is set to start around 1.10pm local time (12.10pm BST) and finish at 5.20pm local time (4.20pm BST).
Prediction
Stage three will likely have some similarities with stage one, and that means Alpecin-Deceuninck will fancy their chances once again. Van der Poel could be in contetion for back-to-back wins, and the likes of Biniam Girmay and Jonathan Milan might hope to sprint to victory. But Jasper Philipsen could well be the man to take it again.
