Lazy Sunday
Watching and recapping stage 2 of the 2025 Tour de France
There are many things I wouldn’t want to do on a slight hangover but ride stage two of the 2025 Tour de France would be right up there. It was the longest day of this year’s race at 209.1 kilometres - not quite the 400 or so they used to ride in the early days of the Tour - but still, nothing to be sniffed at. And it was raining. Proper sideways stuff at the start line in Lauwin-Planque.
I’m a big fan of the fact that this year’s Tour is entirely in France, rather than having the now almost annual tradition of a foreign grand depart, but I did have some sympathy for the riders that they had to begin in the wind and rain of northern France this year, rather than the balmy climes of Italy last year, or Barcelona in 2026.
Oh well. They had to ride it. They’d signed up for it after all. I’d signed up for an afternoon sitting on my sofa watching them ride it, and that, hangover notwithstanding, I could just about manage.
The route looked as stressful as the early weather. An undulating day, up and down and near the coast and its accompanying sea breeze, it was backloaded with trouble. Not much doing in the first half, but in the second there were four categorised climbs and the intermediate sprint. Three of the climbs were in the last thirty kilometres, and then the finish was less a sprint and more a ramp that looked tailor-made - as most of cycling does nowadays - for Tadej Pogačar.
But the first part of the day was slow going. It was raining, everyone had their waterproofs on, I kept being distracted by biscuits, and once four brave souls decided to get themselves into the breakaway, the rest of the bunch seemed happy to let them dangle there for a while.
The concept of a breakaway is one of the more baffling aspects of bike racing to explain to someone unfamiliar with its odd quirks and traditions. Essentially, in almost every road race, a small group of riders attack at the very start of the day and spend their day out ahead of the rest of the group, who ride along in an enormous bunch called the peloton. Nine times out of ten, perhaps even nineteen out of twenty, this group will be reeled in by the peloton and spat right out the back. It is often a thankless task.
Riders get themselves into the breakaway for various reasons. Cycling is still a sponsorship-dominated sport and so exposure for these sponsors is important. There are also other competitions in road races such as the points classification and the King of the Mountains, which make a day out in front not quite as pointless as it seems. And of course there is the faint but still distinct possibility that you might actually win.
Today’s breakaway was particularly thankless. The four men stayed out in front long enough to pick up the paltry one King of the Mountains point on offer, and contest the intermediate sprint, but two of the riders in it - Yevgeniy Fedorov and Andreas Leknessund - crashed on a slippery corner. They got back up but it wasn’t the day to be out front.
Behind there was little drama until the intermediate sprint, which was contested for the minor placings. Biniam Girmay - last year’s points classification winner - annoyed fellow sprinter Jonathan Milan, who remonstrated with the Eritrean, though it wasn’t quite clear why.
And there was a few slips and spills - most notably involving Lotto rider Lennert Van Eetvelt - whose crash managed to be both painful and embarrassing. Once Van Eetvelt had got back on his bike it was abundantly clear to anyone who had the misfortune to find themselves riding behind him that he had ripped open his shorts.
As my hangover settled in and I sank lower into the sofa, so the riders of the Tour de France responded by making a stage of it. The three short sharp climbs broke the race into the pieces. Riders who may have harboured ambitions of winning the race overall - however unlikely given the dominance of Pogačar and Vingegaard - were spat out the back, consigning them to another year of hunting for stage wins once the race hits the mountains.
Vingegaard and Pogačar were both active in the final stages, though Jonas Vingegaard was unusually the more attacking presence. Pogačar was watching and waiting, not attacking willy-nilly like he is often seen doing, instead keeping his powder dry for the uphill sprint.
The large, muscular fly in his ointment proved to be Mathieu van der Poel, who despite winning lots of other bike races has only ever won once before at the Tour. He’s too quick even for Pogačar in a sprint and despite being stuck on the front and having to lead it out, he powered his way up the hill in Boulogne-sur-Mer to inherit the yellow jersey from his teammate Jasper Philipsen.
Jonas Vingegaard was right behind them in third, his competitiveness a soothing balm for fans worried about watching a three-week-long procession for Pogačar.
But the real winners - literally and metaphorically - at the end of the first weekend are Alpecin-Deceuninck. Whether Philipsen and van der Poel’s success will help Alpecin sell more caffeine shampoo remains to be seen, but the cycling team they sponsor have already had an incredibly successful Tour. They could pack up and go home and be happy with their work. They won’t though - they have the yellow jersey to defend, and van der Poel can probably keep it until the time trial on stage five.
Next up: a bunch sprint into Dunkirk. I hope a Brit wins, just for the headlines.
À demain!
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1 second! How MvdP can it be!