2019 Tour de France Stage 2 Results & Recap
Stage 2 of the 2019 Tour de France is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Jumbo Visma on top in team time trial\nBy Clara Beard
The Tour de France stage curtain has been drawn to reveal Jumbo Visma as a dominant force in this year’s opening stages of the grand tour. The Dutch team continues to impress after winning the 27.6 kilometre team time trial ahead of pre-race favorites Team Ineos by 20 seconds. The performance keeps Mike Teunissen in the yellow jersey for another day. Teammate Wout van Aert is second, 10 seconds back.
"Yesterday it was a dream come true, and it’s the case today again. We went hard from the start,” Teunissen said. “Dylan [Groenewegen] did good work at the beginning but because of the crash yesterday, he couldn’t stay for long and we had to work out our tactic without George [Bennett] because he’s too small although he felt good. The other guys were very strong. Everybody kept their pace. We heard we were the fastest. It gave us a lot of morale. We were flying. It’s not that I’m getting used to winning stages at the Tour de France but it remains special. In the end, yesterday it was mainly me who took credit for the win, today it’s eight strong riders, the staff and everyone who contributed to the team’s success. It was a very big goal for us to win this."
It was a long wait for the UK-based Team Ineos, who left the start house first out of 22 teams, as the TTT order went on individual GC and not team GC. At the first intermediate checkpoint at kilometre 13.2, they set a benchmark time of 13’59” then 21’11” at the second split in Schaerbeek. With defending champion Geraint Thomas at the helm, they burst across the finish at Atomium with a time of 29’18.” Ineos time withstood each team’s turn on the fast, yet challenging course through Brussels, however, world TTT champions Deceuninck-Quick Step came dangerously close to besting it, finishing less than a second slower.
When Jumbo Visma hit the road, Ineos watched in the hot seat as they smoothly passed each checkpoint 16 seconds faster than the squad, and held it to the line, helped along by former world champion and expert in the discipline, Tony Martin. The Dutch team only got faster in the second half, eventually dethroning Ineos’ stranglehold by 20 seconds.\n
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