Mathieu van der Poel wins stage 2 of the 2025 Tour de France and takes over the maillot jaune.
As we picked up coverage of the stage, a four man breakaway consisting of Yevgeniy Fedorov (XDS-Astana), Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X), Brent Van Moer (Lotto) and Bruno Armirail (Decathlon-AG2R) had a lead of 23 seconds over the peloton with 57km to go. Their lead was eroding quickly and they were caught just 5km later shortly after the final intermediate sprint in Enocq. They never really had a huge advantage, leading by 3 minutes at the most.
Federov and Milan got the sprint points but it looked like there was some disagreement between Merlier and Girmay in the sprint from the peloton.
With 48km remaining to the finish in Boulogne-sur-Mer, there were two Cat. 3 and one Cat. 4 climb to go. After the effort to make the catch, the peloton slowed considerably, dropping to speeds under 20km/h.
Maillot Jaune Jasper Philipsen was riding close to the front, well protected by his Alpecin-Deceuninck teammates, but Visma-Lease a Bike, Soudal Quick-Step and UAE Team Emirates were all staking their places as well.
Adam Yates, who struggled a bit in Stage 1, suffered a mechanical today, and had to wait quite a while for his team car to get a replacement bike. But he was soon back with the bunch with 7km to go to the start of the Côte du Haut Pichot climb (1.1km at 9.4%).
35km remaining and the peloton was still all together. Danny Van Poppel was driving the train for the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe squad. His father Jean-Paul, won the equivalent Boulogne-sur-Mer stage in 1994. Would he be able to take a win today?
As the climb began, Wout van Aert made a move with several Visma – Lease a Bike teammates in tow, but Tadej Pogacar was holding tight in fourth position. Vingegaard and Jorgenson were also in there.
There was a bit of a split in the peloton over the climb, with 30-40 riders opening a 15 second gap over the rest of the group than soon swelled to 40 seconds with 25km remaining. The climb points went to Tim Wellens, with Pogacar taking second place. With those points, Wellens moves into the provisional KOM lead.
Pogacar’s professional tally went up to 99 victories as he added the Critérium du Dauphiné to his list of successes last month. Could the 100th come today? “It was really hectic yesterday and I think today is gonna be even more!”, the world champion said at the start. “The first goal today is to make it safe through the first part and then through the second part, and then maybe we think about putting myself in good position for the finale, because there can be splits and it’s also better for a stage win. The goal in this Tour is to go for the yellow jersey but if there’s any opportunity for stages, we’ll try to take them.”
20km remaining and it looks as though EF Education – Easy Post have moved some riders towards the front of the peloton as well.
The 15km remaining should prove to be difficult. while the climbs are short, there are ramps of 8 and 10% in there, and the finish in Boulogne-sur-Mer is a 3.8% uphill sprint.
Speeds into the Côte de Saint-Étienne-au-Mont climb were approaching 50 km/h.
It was Pogacar first over the climb, getting his first KOM points.
On the descent, it was Vaquelin, but with 5km to go, it was Vingegaard going on the attack. Vaquelin went again, but it was ultimately Mathieu van der Poel powering through for the win.
Stage 2 Brief Results:
- Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck)
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG)
- Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike)
- Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ)
- Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor)
General Classification After Stage 2:
- Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck)
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), +4”
- Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), +6”
- Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), +10”
- Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), +10”
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