BOULOGNE-SUR-MER, France :The Netherlands’ Mathieu van der Poel won stage two of the Tour de France ahead of Slovenian Tadej Pogacar in a sprint finish on Sunday.
A large leading group stayed together for much of the stage which boiled up into a mass sprint for the line, Van der Poel edging out Pogacar in a photo finish with Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard taking third place.
Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Van der Poel also claimed the race leader’s yellow jersey after winning the longest stage of the Tour, a 209.1km route from Lauwin-Planque to the northern coastal city of Boulogne-sur-Mer.
“It was super difficult, the final was actually harder than I thought,” Van der Poel said.
“People said I was a favourite for today, but if you see which riders were up there on the climbs, I think I did a really good job to be there.”
Alpecin-Deceuninck can celebrate their second Tour win this year after Belgian Jasper Philipsen won the opening stage on Saturday.
Due to adverse weather conditions that caused logistical issues, the start of the stage was delayed by about 15 minutes.
Stage three is a 178.3km route over flat terrain from Valenciennes to Dunkirk on Monday.
