Julian Alaphilippe of France won the 186-kilometre second stage of the Tour de France, outsprinting Marc Hirschi and Britain’s Adam Yates, in a frantic finish on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, to recapture the yellow jersey of Tour leadership that he wore for much of last year’s race.
The peloton had left the start line in Nice in bright sunshine, with the majority of riders swathed in bandages as they rolled away and without three non-starters, all victims of crashes during Saturday’s chaotic first stage.
Philippe Gilbert, of Belgium, who fractured a kneecap, his teammate and 2018 stage winner John Degenkolb, and Rafael Valls, of Mikel Landa’s Bahrain McLaren team, who fractured a femur, were the first riders eliminated from this year’s Tour.
Others, meanwhile, including Thibaut Pinot of France and his teammate David Gaudu, Pavel Sivakov of the Ineos Grenadiers, and Nairo Quintana of Colombia, were the pedalling wounded, as they did their best to shrug off the pain caused by their crashes 24 hours earlier. “It hurts all over,” Pinot said before the start.
The day’s break, which included the perennial green jersey wearer Peter Sagan and six others, established itself well before the first main climb, the Col de la Colmiane, but with the peloton only allowing them a short leash it seemed inevitable that the group would be reeled in.
Just as they had in Saturday’s chaotic conditions, the Jumbo-Visma assumed control and led the main field up the next ascent, the first-category Col de Turini, with the Ineos Grenadiers defending the Tour champion, Egan Bernal, seemingly happy to take a back seat. The pace, however, was high enough to shed the overnight race leader and stage one winner, the sprinter Alexander Kristoff, with 90 kilometres still to race.
But, breakaway caught, the stage came to life in the final 15 kilometres on the climb of the Col des Quatre Chemins, overlooking Nice, where the main contenders came to the fore, after a big attack from Alaphilippe that was chased down by Adam Yates.
A mass pursuit, on the final descent back to Nice seafront, led by the Ineos team and most of the leading favourites, could not prevent the French rider taking the stage win.
