Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) delivered back-to-back glorious breakaway days at the Tour de France for the home nation, in the Italian Grand Départ no less, netting the stage 2 victory to Bologna after attacking away solo from his fellow escapees on the famous San Luca climb with 14km to go.
The 23-year-old Frenchman powered away from Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility), who took second, and Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) after they all got into the day’s early break 190km from the finish, proving the strongest on the stunning 1.9km climb which averages over a 10% gradient.
The San Luca climb brought the best of Italian cycling to the biggest bike race on the planet, with a cacophony of noise welcoming both the day’s early breakaway and the peloton behind who were fighting for the yellow jersey.
As the GC fight unfolded some three minutes down, it was déjà vu from the 2023 edition as Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) exploded into life on the second ascent, forcing Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) into a response.
What the move did was answer all the questions posed in the cycling world from April when Vingegaard crashed at Itzulia Basque Country right to June 20 when he was announced on Vimsa’s Tour roster - would he be at his best?
The answer was a resounding yes, as Vingegaard was the only rider able to follow the superstar Slovenian in his brutal acceleration. Quickly, other GC hopefuls such as Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) and Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) - saw the two true best GC riders in the world move away.
Working together, Pogačar and Vingegaard navigated the descent back down to Emilia-Romagna’s capital to try and maximise their gains, as those behind struggled to put together a concerted chase with UAE and Visma teammates obviously not helping.
Evenepoel put in a stunning effort on the descent and flat run to the line to catch the top two finishers from the past three Tours de France, with Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) in his wheel, before sprinting to the line.
With the drama unfolding behind, Vauquelin rode to the finish with a 45-second gap at the crest of the climb enough to guarantee him victory. Staff waited nervously at the finish, breakaway companion and teammate Christián Rodríguez celebrated in front of TV cameras and Arkéa-B&B Hotels awaited their first-ever Tour de France stage victory after being founded in 2005.
Once the count was confirmed, Pogačar was confirmed as the new leader of the Tour de France, taking over from Romain Bardet (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) who he dropped on San Luca, taking the yellow jersey for the first time since the 2022 race when Vingegaard dropped him on the Col du Granon.
“It was really hard for me but I’m really happy. I had a perfect day out in the breakaway. I have to thank Christian for his role in the way he helped me get through to win the stage. He put me in the perfect position and I knew I was going to be able to attack,” said Vauquelin after taking the biggest win of his career.
“Not until the last moment” did he dare to think he had it wrapped up “because I was constantly asking about time and what I could do.”
For a young Frenchman, even making his debut at the three-week race was a triumph. A stage win extended beyond his wildest dreams, another French fairytale in as many days at the Italian opener of the Tour de France,
“I wanted to take part in the Tour, that was the original dream,” he said. “To now win a stage in it, well that’s amazing and for the team as well - it just makes me incredibly happy.”
How it unfolded
Stage 2 got underway from Cesenatico, where homages were paid to the late Italian cycling legend Marco Pantani in his hometown. It was another hot day andthe seaside town had turned yellow 26 years on from their controversial hero ‘Il Pirata’ taking the Giro-Tour double in 1998.
Director of the Tour de France Christian Prudhomme waved the flag to get racing underway just after midday and it didn’t take long for Krists Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech) to take the initiative and attack.
Behind him was polka-dot jersey Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) who was very active for the second day running and his second launch off the front with 190km to go would form the day's move.
Joining the powerful Norwegian was Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ), Axel Laurance (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Hugo Houle (Israel-Premier Tech), Nelson Oliveira (Movistar), Kévin Vauquelin, Christián Rodríguez (both Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Mike Teunisson (Intermarché-Wanty), Bram Welten (DSM-Firmenich PostNL), Harold Tejada (Astana Qazaqstan) and Jordan Jegat (TotalEnergies).
With tough winds in the Emilia Romagna plain, the DSM-Firmenich PostNL-led peloton didn’t give much chase in the opening flat 50 kilometres, allowing the big group to build an eight-minute advantage.
The gap to the leaders only started to go down to 6:30 over the Côte de Monticino and Côte de Gallisterna, with GC teams ensuring their positioning was optimal.
The action in the peloton was knocked off again as the peloton rode through the Imola race track. 2024 marks 30 years since motor racing lost the great Ayrton Senna at the track, with the Tour honouring the Brazilian in its passing.
As they accelerated away from the Formula 1 arena inside the final 100km, all eyes turned to the intermediate sprint point in Dozza, where the bad luck continued for Visma-Lease a Bike.
Both Wout van Aert and Matteo Jorgenson went down with Laurens De Plus (Ineos Grenadiers) and sustained cuts and grazes but a thumbs up from the Belgian signalled that it was majorly superficial.
The pace behind had been upping until this point when the small crash saw the GC teams and anyone chasing stop their efforts. The gap to the breakaway ballooned back out to a new high of 9:22 with 60km remaining and the hardest climbs to come.
With the final climb approaching before the entrance onto the Bologna-San Luca circuit, the Côte de Montecalvo, the GC teams started getting nervous again, ensuring they were at the front of the peloton before heading down to the city.
The peloton sped up on the climb, reducing the gap to 6:00 from the leaders, knowing how important the first lap of the San Luca circuit would be to ensure their leaders didn’t lose any time.
Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny) led the way for Maxim Van Gils over the steep 3km climb, hoping to get the puncheur into the white jersey that he was wearing but not leading the classification for, but it was a curious move given how he was the only domestique helping with 40km to go.
More red and blue jerseys began to appear for Lotto-Dstny, as did Lidl-Trek and all the GC teams, with the narrow entrance onto the first ascent of San Luca approaching. The peloton crossed the finish line for the first time 4:17 down.
Incredible crowds welcomed the break on the first ascent and it was cagey until under-23 World Champion Laurance launched an explosive move.
Visma-Lease a Bike led the peloton further down the road and onto the lower slopes, with Van Aert and Tiesj Benoot doing the work on the front to protect Vingegaard. This is where the gap stabilised at 3:30.
The break came back together over the top of the climb to make it a group of 10 again on the first descent back down to Bologna which would be the decider for the stage victory later on but exploded when a Teunissen attack prompted Oliveira, Vauequelin and Abrahamsen to get away.
The trio fought out the final ascent to San Luca, with Vauquelin much too strong for his companions as would be the case for Pogačar and Vingegaard when they reached the second ascent in the GC group. The Frenchman would do on to take Arkéa's first Tour win.
Poor positioning at the base did for Roglič and Evenepoel who were put on a small gap. The Belgian managed to reduce this with Carapaz in his wheel on the run for home, but Roglič was resigned to finishing in the yellow jersey group with Bardet and his climbing domestiques.
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