Stage 2

The road

At the start

Cancellara in yellow, the first sprint ahead

Peter Sagan announced himself on the wall at Seraing yesterday, but the yellow jersey stayed with Fabian Cancellara, who leads Bradley Wiggins and Sylvain Chavanel by seven seconds and Tejay van Garderen by ten. Today runs flat from Visé to Tournai and the fast men have had it marked since the route was announced — Cavendish in the rainbow jersey, Greipel, Goss, Farrar, all of them with something to prove.

How it was won

1. 114 km to go

   Roux is the last one caught

   Anthony Roux jumped away from his two companions and rode the last of the break's fifty seconds out on his own. He is swallowed with fourteen kilometres left, and the day becomes what everybody knew it would be.

2. 2At the line

   Cavendish, without a train

   Sky's lead-out never materialises, so the world champion simply picks the best wheel in the race and sits on it. He comes off Greipel's shoulder, the two of them go at it stride for stride into Tournai, and Cavendish's front wheel is the one in front — his twenty-first Tour stage.

The result