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Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Lodges) delivered back-to-back wonderful breakaway days on the Tour de France for the house nation, within the Italian Grand Départ no much less, netting the stage 2 victory to Bologna after attacking away solo from his fellow escapees on the well-known San Luca climb with 14km to go.
The 23-year-old Frenchman powered away from Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility), who took second, and Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) after all of them obtained into the day’s early break 190km from the end, proving the strongest on the gorgeous 1.9km climb which averages over a ten% gradient.
The San Luca climb introduced the most effective of Italian biking to the largest bike race on the planet, with a cacophony of noise welcoming each the day’s early breakaway and the peloton behind who had been combating for the yellow jersey.
Because the GC battle unfolded some three minutes down, it was déjà vu from the 2023 version as Tadej Pogačar (UAE Workforce Emirates) exploded into life on the second ascent, forcing Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) right into a response.
What the transfer did was reply all of the questions posed within the biking world from April when Vingegaard crashed at Itzulia Basque Nation proper to June 20 when he was introduced on Vimsa’s Tour roster – would he be at his finest?
The reply was a powerful sure, as Vingegaard was the one rider in a position to observe the celebrity Slovenian in his brutal acceleration. Rapidly, different GC hopefuls reminiscent of Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) and Primož Roglič (Crimson Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) – noticed the 2 true finest GC riders on the planet transfer away.
Working collectively, Pogačar and Vingegaard navigated the descent again all the way down to Emilia-Romagna’s capital to attempt to maximise their positive factors, as these behind struggled to place collectively a concerted chase with UAE and Visma teammates clearly not serving to.
Evenepoel put in a shocking effort on the descent and flat run to the road to catch the highest two finishers from the previous three Excursions de France, with Richard Carapaz (EF Training-EasyPost) in his wheel, earlier than sprinting to the road.
With the drama unfolding behind, Vauquelin rode to the end with a 45-second hole on the crest of the climb sufficient to ensure him victory. Workers waited nervously on the end, breakaway companion and teammate Christián Rodríguez celebrated in entrance of TV cameras and Arkéa-B&B Lodges awaited their first-ever Tour de France stage victory after being based in 2005.
As soon as the depend was confirmed, Pogačar was confirmed as the brand new chief of the Tour de France, taking on from Romain Bardet (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) who he dropped on San Luca, taking the yellow jersey for the primary time for the reason that 2022 race when Vingegaard dropped him on the Col du Granon.
Extra to come back.
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