Peter Sagan sprints to stage 2 glory – Tour de France

Tour de France 2018

Stage 2

World champion Peter Sagan roared into the yellow jersey with victory in Stage 2 of the Tour de France after a late pile-up held up race leader Fernando Gaviria and blew the pack to smithereens.

Slovakia’s Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) powered past Frenchman Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ) on the uphill home straight before holding off Italy’s Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) in a tight finish to move into the race lead.

Colombia’s Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors) was involved in a spicy crash that also brought down the Australian Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) on a tight right-hand bend with two kilometres remaining of the 182.5km stage from Mouilleron-Saint-Germain to La Roche-sur-Yon.

German veteran Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal) and Norway’s Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) completed the top five of a reduced sprint between only nine riders, as the rest of the peloton arrived in dribs and drabs following another chaotic finale in La Vendee.

Ten bonus seconds for the victory means Sagan will swap his rainbow jersey for a yellow upgrade for Monday’s team time trial, the 28-year-old now leading Gaviria by six seconds in the general classification. To compound matters, Gaviria also lost the green jersey to his rival.

Britain’s Chris Froome (Team Sky) avoided further incident after his far-from-ideal opening outing on Saturday – although the travails of his compatriot Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) continued with a crash around 30km from the finish.

Yates was one of a handful of Mitchelton-Scott riders to hit the deck on a day that saw the withdrawal of both Tsgabu Grmay (Trek-Segafredo) and Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana).

An early break saw Frenchman Sylvain Chavanel (Direct Energie) ride clear with New Zealander Dion Smith (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) and the Austrian Michael Gogl (Trek-Segafredo).

Sagan crosses the line for his first victory of this year’s Tour.

But after Smith picked up the solitary KOM point atop the early Cat.4 Cote de Pouzauges both he and Gogl elected to drop back to the peloton, leading Chavanel out alone in the heat of the day.

Riding a record-breaking eighteenth Tour, the French veteran ploughed a lonely furrow through his team’s home region of La Vendee as he built up a maximum lead of over four minutes on the 62nd birthday of his manager, Jean-Rene Bernaudeau.

Frenchman Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ) went down hard and Ethiopia’s Grmay abandoned with severe abdominal pains before Chavanel, 39, rode through the intermediate sprint two minutes clear of the pack with 50km remaining.

Sagan pipped Gaviria, Kristoff and Demare in the warm-up for main event before a large crash involving Astana’s road captain Sanchez forced the Spanish veteran out with a suspected elbow injury.

Sanchez’s spill was a sign of things to come as Mitchelton-Scott saw Yates, Mat Hayman and Luke Durbridge go down in separate incidents, with Switzerland’s Sylvan Dillier (Ag2R-La Mondiale) suffering the same fate.

Meanwhile, Demare picked up a puncture inside the final 30km – giving him enough time to recover but disrupting his bid to get his race back on track following his crash in Saturday’s hectic finale.

Germany’s Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin) was not so lucky – his puncture with 8km remaining effectively ending his chances of taking part in the final sprint.

As it happened, the final sprint was far from your routine bunch affair. After Chavanel’s 350th day on the Tour came to an end with 12km remaining – just after he held on to win the final bonus sprint – the front of the pack ballooned with teams of the GC favourites and sprinters alike.

Sagan wearing the famous yellow jersey.

As tensions rose, and the route got more technical, the inevitable happened. A pile-up with 2km remaining saw half a dozen riders skid into the barriers as Matthews – last year’s green jersey – went down badly, and a poorly positioned Gaviria got caught up in the tangle.

The Colombian managed to remount quickly but he was unable to fight back in time to rejoin his rivals. In the absence of the yellow jersey, it was Gaviria’s Quick-Step team-mate Julian Alaphilippe who went for a long pop in the final kilometre – but to no avail.

When Demare launched his kick early, Sagan reacted fast – veering towards the barriers to cut off an irate John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo) before soaring past Demare and holding the accelerating Colbrelli at bay.

A ninth stage win on the Tour propelled Sagan into the lead of the yellow and green jersey standings, with Gaviria having to settle for the white jersey as best young rider.

“I am really happy for today,” said Sagan, before issuing a “big thanks” to his Bora Hansgrohe team-mates.

“We were in front all of the last 30 kilometres. In the end, I expected something more easy but it was really tough, up and down, left and right, with climbs and descents. I said it was better to start [the sprint] later today. Demare started with Degenkolb and I overtook them but I was really lucky Colbrelli didn’t jump me.”

After scaling the summit of that first climb in pole position, Smith took the polka dot jersey from the shoulders of Kevin Ledanois (Fortuneo-Samsic) by virtue of a higher position on GC. The 25-year-old made history by becoming the first New Zealander to feature on a Tour podium.

By picking up a bonus second for third place in the bonus sprint 14km from the finish, Welshman Geraint Thomas moved to within 15 seconds of the race summit and will be tipped to don the maillot jaune after Monday’s 35km team time trial in Cholet, for which Team Sky will be one of the favourites alongside Mitchelton-Scott and BMC.

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