Stage 2

The road

At the start

Two climbs of San Luca

Romain Bardet, riding his last Tour, rode away with a team-mate into the first French yellow jersey since Alaphilippe — four seconds up on Frank van den Broek, eleven on Wout van Aert, fifteen on Tadej Pogačar and every other favourite. Today finishes over the sanctuary climb of San Luca above Bologna, 1.9 kilometres at 10.6%, climbed twice, bonus seconds at the second summit and twelve kilometres of descent after.

How it was won

1. 1101 km to go

   A big break gets a long leash

   A twelve-strong move including Vauquelin stretches its advantage past nine minutes as Visma and the GC teams keep a wary watch behind.

2. 241 km to go

   Onto the San Luca circuit

   The famous San Luca climb, walls of Bolognese noise on both sides, splits the break and puts every GC team on red alert for the double ascent to come.

3. 314 km to go

   Vauquelin solos away

   On the steep San Luca ramp the 23-year-old Kévin Vauquelin rides clear of his breakaway companions, powering toward Arkéa's first-ever Tour stage win.

4. 46 km to go

   Pogačar and Vingegaard trade blows

   Three minutes back, Pogačar explodes on the second ascent and only Vingegaard can follow — a resounding answer that the Dane's Basque-Country crash has not broken him — as Evenepoel and Roglič scramble behind.

5. 5At the line

   Vauquelin wins as Pogačar seizes yellow

   Vauquelin celebrates a maiden Tour win while behind him Pogačar drops Bardet on San Luca to reclaim the maillot jaune.

The result