Presented by NTT DATA
1-2: VAUQUELIN MAKES HISTORY WITH BARDET
1-2: Vauquelin makes history with Bardet
Frenchmen are on a historic roll! On the day after Romain Bardet’s flight to the Maillot Jaune, Kévin Vauquelin powered to the solo victory in Bologne for a second French victory in a row.
The last time France won two consecutive stages dates back to 2019, with Julian Alaphilippe (Pau, stage 13) and Thibaut Pinot (Tourmalet, stage 14).
Considering the opening stages of the Tour de France… Bardet and Vauquelin follow the tracks of André Darrigade and Jacques Anquetil in 1961!
In 1968, Charly Grossest won the prologue and stage 1.
718: POGACAR IS BACK ON TOP
Tadej Pogacar with the Maillot Jaune is not an unusual sight… But it’s a first since he lost it to Jonas Vingegaard on 13 July 2022, 718 days ago! On that day, the Dane rose to power on the slopes up Col du Granon. Since then, Vingegaard has won two Tours (like Pogacar) and amassed 27 yellow jerseys. Pogacar is now up to 22.
23: VAUQUELIN REVIVES PINOT’S MEMORY
At 23 years, 2 months and 4 days old, Kévin Vauquelin is the youngest French stage winner in the Tour since Thibaut Pinot won in Porrentruy 12 years ago (2012) at 22 years 1 month and 9 days. Pinot went on to become one of France’s most beloved sportsmen… Let’s see how far Vauquelin can climb.
5’05: SAN LUCA – VINGEGAARD IN FLYING FORM
The second ascent up San Luca showed Jonas Vingegaard came to the Tour de France with strong legs, as he was the only one able to follow Tadej Pogacar’s attack. As he started the climb further behind, he even set the best time on the ascent, much faster than the Strava KOM set by Simon Yates and Michael Woods in the Giro dell’Emilia 2023.
23: A HISTORIC HAUL FOR ABRAHAMSEN
Racing at the front for two days in a row, Jonas Abrahamsen (Norway’s first leader of the KOM standings) has tightened his grip on the polka-dot jersey with a tally of 23 points.
No rider had amassed so many points in the first two stages of the Tour de France since the current scale was introduced in 2017. In 2020, with a difficult start around Nice, Benoît Cosnefroy had 18 points.
In 2002, Stéphane Bergès had 26 points after stage 2… But at the time, a cat-3 climb gave 10 points to the first rider at the summit (vs 2 points nowadays).
5,450: RELENTLESS CLIMBING
After 2 days of racing, the riders have already overcome 5,450 metres of elevation. As a means of comparison, Mont Blanc is 4,809 metres high. The peloton has surpassed that level of elevation at km 151 of stage 2.
Considering the 13 categorised ascents so far, Tadej Pogacar is climbing at 21.8km/h on average so far.
14: POGACAR, FROM THE MAGLIA ROSA TO THE MAILLOT JAUNE
Chasing the first Giro - Tour double in the overall standings since 1998, Tadej Pogacar has now led both Grand Tours this year. He is the first rider to wear both the Maglia Rosa and the Maillot Jaune the same year since Cadel Evans did it in 2010.
The Australian wore each jersey for only one day and won neither the Giro (5th) nor the Tour (26th).
So far in 2024, Pogacar has 20 Maglia Rosa and 1 Maillot Jaune. Both in the Giro and in the Tour, he took the lead on day 2. And he kept it all the way to the finish in Italy…
110-120: THE KEY SECTION FOR THE BREAK
As the peloton sped up over the first summits of the day, a tight battle was shaping between a strong breakaway and a fierce bunch. But just ahead of the intermediate sprint in Dozza (km 108.1), riders including Wout van Aert crashed at a speed of 56 km/h.
The bunch went on to cover the range from km 110 to km 120 at an average of 40.4 km/h while the attackers pushed at 47.1km/h on the same section to bring their gap up to 9 minutes with less than 80 kilometres to go. The bunch then gave up on the chase.
191: ARKÉA-B&B HOTELS FIND THEIR OPENING
Ten years after their first participation in the Tour de France (as Bretagne-Séché Environnement), on their 191st stage, Arkéa-B&B Hotels claimed their first stage win! Their first top-3 result came in 2016, when Daniel McLay came 3rd in Montauban (stage 6). In 2021, Nacer Bouhanni was 2nd in Fougères (stage 4).
1992: THE NORMAN DROUGHT IS OVER
Hailing from the department of Calvados, just like Thierry Gouvenou (the race director of the Tour de France), Kévin Vauquelin is the first stage winner from Normandy since Thierry Marie (also from Calvados) won stage 18 of the Tour 1992 in Tours.
