2026 Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Stage 2 Results & Recap
Stage 2 of the 2026 Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Anthon Charmig (UXM) took just the second victory of his career and his first at WorldTour level when he emerged as the strongest member of a 10-rider breakaway group on the longest stage of this race.
The 28-year-old Dane dropped his final breakaway companions halfway up the last of five categorized climbs and soloed the final 10km into the finish at Le Puy en Velay, where he finished 41 seconds ahead of Henri-François Renard-Haquin (TPP), who outsprinted Vlad Van Mechelen (TBV), Raúl García Pierna (MOV) and Clément Braz Afonso (GFC) for second place.
Charmig and Renard-Haquin were among six riders who went clear as soon as the start flag was dropped. Baptiste Veistroffer (LOI), Alex Diaz (CJR), Benjamin Thomas (COF) and Nadav Raisberg (NSN) were also in there. Braz Afonso, García Pierna, Jordan Jegat (TEN) and Van Mechelen bridged up to this group of six soon after the first categorized climb, the cat 2 Col de Chatain.
Braz Afonso became the race leader on the road when the break's advantage passed 5'35", his deficit at the start of the day on yellow jersey Alex Baudin (EFE). Crossing the Rhône Valley after the first two climbs, the break's advantage reached its maximum gap of 6'20".
Approaching the fourth climb of the day, with the bunch now 4' in arrears, Veistroffer and Braz Afonso attacked. However, the Lotto rider couldn't stay the pace when they reached the climb, leaving the Groupama rider isolated with 34km undulating kilometers remaining.
García Pierna and Van Mechelen regained contact with Braz Afonso on the flat roads after that climb. Not long after, Thomas, Renard-Haquin, Jegat and Charmig also bridged up.
Going onto the final climb with just 15km remaining, the peloton was still 4' back and the breakaways knew that the stage would be decided between them. Charmig and Braz Afonso attacked on the early ramps, only for García Pierna and then Van Mechelen to bridge back up to them.
Halfway up, when the climb steepened, Charmig went clear again and this time no one was able to respond. He topped the climb with an eight-second lead and increased that gap all of the way into the finish.
The GC favorites came in more than 3' behind the winner, happy to have negotiated a long day without having to press overly hard, with stage 3's critical team time trial very much in mind.
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