TOUR DE FRANCE 2024 | STAGE 2 | CESENATICO > BOLOGNE`
BOLOGNA, Italy (June 30, 2024) — The second stage of the 2024 Tour de France was won by Kevin Vauquelin on Sunday in the centre of Bologna, after the young Frenchman attacked on the second San Luca climb and made it to the finish line alone. Vauquelin therefore made it two wins for French riders in the first two stages, handing Arkea – B&B Hotels their first ever Tour de France victory in their 11th participation, with Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X) finishing second as he retained the polka dot jersey and Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ) third on the stage. In the general classification Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) took over at the top with his own San Luca attack, taking the Yellow Jersey from Romain Bardet (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL).
A breakaway is formed
The 175 riders who crossed the finish line in Rimini on Stage 1 were present at the start of this second stage in Cesenatico. The parcours of the day inspired the attackers, who presented themselves in numbers at the start of the stage to attempt a breakaway. Despite a fast pace in the bunch, a significant group managed to break away at km 8, featuring Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ), Axel Laurance (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Hugo Houle (Israel-Premier-Tech), Nelson Oliveira (Movistar), Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X), Harold Tejada (Astana), Cristian Rodriguez (Arkea-B&B), Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B), Mike Teunissen (Intermarché-Wanty), Bram Welten (dsm Firmenich) and Jordan Jegat (TotralEnergies). Brent Van Moer (Lotto-Dstny) gave chase with Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla) for several kilometres but they were finally unable to join the front group. None of the riders in the break represented a direct threat to the Yellow Jersey of Romain Bardet, whose dsm Firmenich teammates therefore let the gap increase, first to 5′ at km 23, then to 8’20” at km 66.
Crashes for Van Aert and Jorgenson
Abrahamsen was the first to summit the Côte de Monticino (Cat 3, km 74) – where Welten fell back from the breakaway and was caught by the main group – and the Côte de Gallisterna (Cat 3, km 88.8). At the top of the Gallisterna climb the lead of the breakaway had been reduced to 5’35” due to the energy of a nervous peloton. Norwegian rider Abrahamsen led the way through Dozza (IS, km 108.1), where Laurens de Plus (Ineos Grenadiers), Matteo Jorgenson and Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) suffered a crash at high speed. The three quickly resumed their ride, with abrasions and bruises. The peloton eased the pace after the intermediate sprint, allowing the breakaway to increase its lead to 9’15” by km 129.
The peloton responds
Determined to retain the polka dot jersey, Abrahamsen was first on the Côte de Botteghino di Zocca (Cat 4, km 139) and the Côte de Montecalvo (3rd, km 151.2). It was on the Montecalvo ascent that the peloton quickened its pace, with the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team of Primoz Roglic and the Lotto-dstny colleagues of Maxim Van Gils producing a strong acceleration that reduced the peloton and decreased the gap to the breakaway to 4’15” on the first crossing of the Bologna finish line (km 162.5). On the first ascent of the Côte de San Luca (Cat 3, km 168.3) there were several attacks without final consequences in front and a sustained pace from Visma-Lease a Bike behind. Abrahamsen took first place on the first ascent of San Luca again, 3’25” ahead of the main group.
No-one can match Vauquelin
The first climb to the San Luca sanctuary shook up the lead group, which regrouped momentarily but exploded under the effect of Neilson Oliveira’s attack, 21 km from the finish. The Portuguese rider was only followed by Kevin Vauquelin and Jonas Abrahamsen. The trio advanced for the second time towards the climb of San Luca, where the Arkea-B&B rider managed to go solo. Vauquelin built up a lead of 40 seconds which he had managed to maintain in the final kilometres and he won uncontested at the finish line, 36” in front of Abrahamsen.
Evenepoel and Carapaz stay in contact
On the second San Luca climb the battle was also played out in the peloton, where Romain Bardet lost contact mid climb and saw his Yellow Jersey slip away. 600 meters from the summit, Tadej Pogačar launched an attack only followed by Jonas Vingegaard. The protagonists of the last four editions went clear of the rest of the group of favourites, with the exception of Remco Evenepoel and Richard Carapaz who regained contact in the last kilometre of the race. At the finish line, “Pogi” was back in yellow.
Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step): “I Was Too Far Back at The Bottom Of The Climb”
“I think these first two days have gone pretty well both for me and for my team. We have proven that the shape is there. I need some more power in my legs if I want to follow accelerations like Tadej’s, but that will come as we pack more racing days in. Actually, the legs were there – I was just too far back at the bottom of the climb and had to close a gap between two groups midway, so I burned some matches there that were missing later. Yet I am very happy that I could later come back to Tadej’s and Jonas’ wheels. It was a very hard chase, but I kept pushing because I could see that I was coming closer and closer. It is very good for my confidence that I bridged back with them. On the other hand, we all knew that this was a very specific stage, and that Tadej is the best in these type of efforts. It has been a good GC day, and now I feel a bit like Tadej as I’m wearing the same white jersey that he has been sporting for ages! It is an honour to lead this classification.”
Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X): “I Was Not Strong Enough Today to Win”
“It was a good day. I got more points for the Mountain jersey and also I’ve got this green jersey. I’ve also got second place on the stage so I’m really happy about that. I was not strong enough today to win so I’m very happy to get second place today. We will see how it all goes now after two very hard days. Maybe I did not have such good legs today after yesterday, so maybe now it will be a bit of an easier day tomorrow.”
Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B Hotels): “My Riding Quality Was There”
“This is crazy. I had two weeks of disappointment, in Switzerland and the French championships. I have to thank Cristian Rodriguez. He put in quite a few pulls to animate the breakaway, and then controlled everything for me. Very strong. A big thank you. I felt on the climb before, after increasing the tempo that I could even accelerate more myself, even if it was still too far away, so I decided to wait. Afterwards I followed the move of Oliveira and Abrahamsen, knowing that on the climb I was better than them and I was. I was able to get away and it was perfect. I was asking about the gaps all the time. I started to appreciate the victory very late. I knew they could ride very hard behind, so I was wary. Fortunately my riding quality was there and I was able to finish the job. It was very cool.”
Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): “I’m Not Surprised by Jonas’ Level”
“A good day? Well, so-so. Today, when the break went, we knew they had a good chance of making it to the finish. In the final circuit I felt super good and the pace was super high already the first time up San Luca because of how the Visma team pulled. Then, the second time, we decided to try so I could test myself a bit. Jonas Vingegaard was really quickly on my wheel. I’m not surprised by his level. We cooperated well together, but Remco and Richard did it too and came back to our wheel at the very end. The whole circuit in Bologna was super crowded, and the climb was insane! Really unbelievable. It’s the cycling we should all love. Am I going to keep the yellow jersey for long? Well, I prefer to take it day by day and stick to the original plan…”
TOUR DE FRANCE 2024 | STAGE 2 | CESENATICO > BOLOGNE | DAILY STATS
1-2: VAUQUELIN MAKES HISTORY WITH BARDET
Frenchmen are on a historic roll! On the day after Romain Bardet’s flight to the Maillot Jaune, Kévin Vauquelin powered to the solo victory in Bologne for a second French victory in a row. The last time France won two consecutive stages dates back to 2019, with Julian Alaphilippe (Pau, stage 13) and Thibaut Pinot (Tourmalet, stage 14). Considering the opening stages of the Tour de France… Bardet and Vauquelin follow the tracks of André Darrigade and Jacques Anquetil in 1961! In 1968, Charly Grossest won the prologue and stage 1.
718: POGACAR IS BACK ON TOP
Tadej Pogačar with the Maillot Jaune is not an unusual sight… But it’s a first since he lost it to Jonas Vingegaard on 13 July 2022, 718 days ago! On that day, the Dane rose to power on the slopes up Col du Granon. Since then, Vingegaard has won two Tours (like Pogačar) and amassed 27 yellow jerseys. Pogačar is now up to 22.
23: VAUQUELIN REVIVES PINOT’S MEMORY
At 23 years, 2 months and 4 days old, Kévin Vauquelin is the youngest French stage winner in the Tour since Thibaut Pinot won in Porrentruy 12 years ago (2012) at 22 years 1 month and 9 days. Pinot went on to become one of France’s most beloved sportsmen… Let’s see how far Vauquelin can climb.
5’05: SAN LUCA – VINGEGAARD IN FLYING FORM
The second ascent up San Luca showed Jonas Vingegaard came to the Tour de France with strong legs, as he was the only one able to follow Tadej Pogačar’s attack. As he started the climb further behind, he even set the best time on the ascent, much faster than the Strava KOM set by Simon Yates and Michael Woods in the Giro dell’Emilia 2023.
23: A HISTORIC HAUL FOR ABRAHAMSEN
Racing at the front for two days in a row, Jonas Abrahamsen (Norway’s first leader of the KOM standings) has tightened his grip on the polka-dot jersey with a tally of 23 points.
No rider had amassed so many points in the first two stages of the Tour de France since the current scale was introduced in 2017. In 2020, with a difficult start around Nice, Benoît Cosnefroy had 18 points.
In 2002, Stéphane Bergès had 26 points after stage 2… But at the time, a cat-3 climb gave 10 points to the first rider at the summit (vs 2 points nowadays).
5,450: RELENTLESS CLIMBING
After 2 days of racing, the riders have already overcome 5,450 metres of elevation. As a means of comparison, Mont Blanc is 4,809 metres high. The peloton has surpassed that level of elevation at km 151 of stage 2.
Considering the 13 categorised ascents so far, Tadej Pogačar is climbing at 21.8km/h on average so far.
14: POGACAR, FROM THE MAGLIA ROSA TO THE MAILLOT JAUNE
Chasing the first Giro – Tour double in the overall standings since 1998, Tadej Pogačar has now led both Grand Tours this year. He is the first rider to wear both the Maglia Rosa and the Maillot Jaune the same year since Cadel Evans did it in 2010. The Australian wore each jersey for only one day and won neither the Giro (5th) nor the Tour (26th).
So far in 2024, Pogačar has 20 Maglia Rosa and 1 Maillot Jaune. Both in the Giro and in the Tour, he took the lead on day 2. And he kept it all the way to the finish in Italy…
110-120: THE KEY SECTION FOR THE BREAK
As the peloton sped up over the first summits of the day, a tight battle was shaping between a strong breakaway and a fierce bunch. But just ahead of the intermediate sprint in Dozza (km 108.1), riders including Wout van Aert crashed at a speed of 56 km/h.
The bunch went on to cover the range from km 110 to km 120 at an average of 40.4 km/h while the attackers pushed at 47.1km/h on the same section to bring their gap up to 9 minutes with less than 80 kilometres to go. The bunch then gave up on the chase.
191: ARKÉA-B&B HOTELS FIND THEIR OPENING
Ten years after their first participation in the Tour de France (as Bretagne-Séché Environnement), on their 191st stage, Arkéa-B&B Hotels claimed their first stage win! Their first top-3 result came in 2016, when Daniel McLay came 3rd in Montauban (stage 6). In 2021, Nacer Bouhanni was 2nd in Fougères (stage 4).
1992: THE NORMAN DROUGHT IS OVER
Hailing from the department of Calvados, just like Thierry Gouvenou (the race director of the Tour de France), Kévin Vauquelin is the first stage winner from Normandy since Thierry Marie (also from Calvados) won stage 18 of the Tour 1992 in Tours.
