A long and gruelling stage two of the Tour de France ended with more excitement as Mathieu Van der Poel sprinted to the line ahead of Tadej Pogacar.Van der Poel took the yellow jersey from Jasper Philipsen having won just his second ever stage at the Tour de France,

Saturday’s 171-km ride from Saint-Méen-le-Grand to Laval ended in an uphill drag that played to Milan’s strengths. The Italian sprinter surged clear after losing his lead-out train, freestyling it and grabbing onto Mathieu van der Poel’s wheel before outpacing Wout van Aert and Kaden Groves. It marked Italy’s first Tour stage win since 2019.

A three-week Grand Tour will always contain natural ebbs and flows, and, for much of Monday’s stage between Valenciennes and Dunkirk, it looked as if the peloton had declared an unofficial rest day, with the riders happy to cruise back towards the coast after a weekend of wind, rain and intensity.

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