2020 Tour de France Stage 2 Results & Recap
Stage 2 of the 2020 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
Alaphilippe wins in Nice
Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick Step) won his fifth Tour de France stage win today in Nice after instigating a breakaway of three on the final climb. Marc Hirschi (Team Sunweb) and Adam Yates (Mitchelton Scott) bridged across to the Frenchman, and finished second and third respectively in the sprint to the line, just as the peloton loomed behind.
"I hadn't won a single race this year yet," Alaphilippe said. "But I've always remained serious with my training despite the difficult moments I went through. I dedicate this victory to my father [who passed away on June 27]. I asked my team to make the race hard. There weren't many riders left in the last climb. I gave it all. I had nothing to lose. It was nerve wracking, but Adam Yates cooperated. I wanted to maintain the gap until the red flame. I'm kind of used to the pressure. To finish it off makes me feel good. This is the victory that I was missing. The yellow jersey is the ice on the cake."\nAlaphilippe takes over the jersey from yesterday's stage winner, Alexander Kristoff.
"I expected to lose the yellow jersey, to be honest," Kristoff said. "I managed to hang on a bit, but the course was too hard for me today. I still have the green jersey and I’m happy with that. I don’t know how long I can wear it. Normally Peter [Sagan] is too strong. He goes in breakaways like today, so I’d better keep my legs fresh for normal sprints. I think tomorrow should be for another sprint finish."
On today's 186km stage, the breakaway went straight from the 0km mark with Peter Sagan and Lukas Pöstlberger, (Bora-Hansgrohe), Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R-La Mondiale), Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo), Anthony Perez (Cofidis), Michael Gogl (NTT) and Matteo Trentin (CCC) eager to fight for the early intermediate sprint that appeared at kilometre 16.
Trentin outsprinted Sagan for the maximum points, and immediately punctured, which caused him to head back into the peloton. The seven leaders continued to work well together on the first climb, the col la Colmiane. Before the summit, COSNEFROY attacked and took the 10 points on offer.
The col de Turini was were the breakaway began to feel the efforts of the day, and Sagan lost contact about halfway up. Perez bested Cosnefroy for the points at the top of this category 1 summit, making them tied in the KOM competition.
The leaders eventually were caught at the beginning of the ascent to col d'Eze with 40 kilometres to go.With 13 kilometres left, Alaphilippe attacked taking Yates and Hirschi with him. Yates won the 8 seconds bonus on the final climb offering time bonuses, but Alaphilippe showed how desperately he wanted this win by barely outsprinting Hirschi at the line.
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