second stage tour de france 2022

• Tour de France
• Giro d'Italia
• La Vuelta ciclista a España
• World Championships
• Milano-Sanremo
• Amstel Gold Race
• Tirreno-Adriatico
• Liège-Bastogne-Liège
• Il Lombardia
• La Flèche Wallonne
• Paris - Nice
• Paris-Roubaix
• Volta Ciclista a Catalunya
• Critérium du Dauphiné
• Tour des Flandres
• Gent-Wevelgem in Flanders Fields
• Clásica Ciclista San Sebastián
• UAE Team Emirates
• Arkéa - B&B Hotels
• Astana Qazaqstan Team
• Alpecin-Deceuninck
• Bahrain - Victorious
• BORA - hansgrohe
• Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
• EF Education-EasyPost
• Groupama - FDJ
• INEOS Grenadiers
• Intermarché - Wanty
• Lidl - Trek
• Movistar Team
• Soudal - Quick Step
• Team dsm-firmenich PostNL
• Team Jayco AlUla
• Team Visma | Lease a Bike
• Grand tours
• Top competitors
• Final GC favorites
• Stage profiles
• Riders form
• Countdown to 3 billion pageviews
• Favorite500
• Profile Score
• Stage winners
• All stage profiles
• Race palmares
• Complementary results

Finish photo

• Contribute info
• Contribute results
• Contribute site(s)
• Results - Results
• Info - Info
• Live - Live
• Game - Game
• Stats - Stats
• More - More
•   »  

Sprint | Kalundborg (126.9 km)

Points at finish, kom sprint (4) côte d'asnæs indelukke (62 km), kom sprint (4) côte d'høve stræde (72.5 km), kom sprint (4) côte de kårup strandbakke (84 km), youth day classification, team day classification, race information.

• Date: 02 July 2022
• Start time: 12:35
• Avg. speed winner: 44.186 km/h
• Race category: ME - Men Elite
• Distance: 202.2 km
• Points scale: GT.A.Stage
• UCI scale: UCI.WR.GT.A.Stage - TM2022
• Parcours type:
• ProfileScore: 11
• Vert. meters: 1149
• Departure: Roskilde
• Arrival: Nyborg
• Race ranking: 1
• Startlist quality score: 1551
• Won how: Sprint of large group
• Avg. temperature: 22 °C

Race profile

• Côte d'Asnæs Indelukke
• Côte d'Høve Stræde
• Côte de Kårup Strandbakke

Grand Tours

• Vuelta a España

Major Tours

• Volta a Catalunya
• Tour de Romandie
• Tour de Suisse
• Itzulia Basque Country
• Milano-SanRemo
• Ronde van Vlaanderen

Championships

• European championships

Top classics

• Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
• Strade Bianche
• Gent-Wevelgem
• Dwars door Vlaanderen
• Eschborn-Frankfurt
• San Sebastian
• Bretagne Classic
• GP Montréal

Popular riders

• Tadej Pogačar
• Wout van Aert
• Remco Evenepoel
• Jonas Vingegaard
• Mathieu van der Poel
• Mads Pedersen
• Primoz Roglic
• Demi Vollering
• Lotte Kopecky
• Katarzyna Niewiadoma
• PCS ranking
• UCI World Ranking
• Points per age
• Latest injuries
• Youngest riders
• Grand tour statistics
• Monument classics
• Latest transfers
• Favorite 500
• Points scales
• Profile scores
• Reset password
• Cookie consent

About ProCyclingStats

• Cookie policy
• Contributions
• Pageload 0.1032s

Tour de France 2022: The stage-by-stage story of the race

• Published 24 July 2022

Jonas Vingegaard (middle) won the 2022 Tour de France from Tadej Pogacar (left) and Geraint Thomas

Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard was crowned Tour de France champion for the first time after the 109th edition of the race ended in Paris on Sunday.

The 25-year-old Jumbo Visma rider beat 2021 champion Tadej Pogacar by two minutes 43 seconds, as Britain's Geraint Thomas finished third overall.

Starting in Copenhagen, the riders had to tackle two individual time trials and six mountain stages on trips to the Alps and Pyrenees during the 3,353km race.

Here is the story of the 2022 race.

Friday, 1 July - stage one: Copenhagen - Copenhagen, 13.2km

Yves Lampaert is the first Belgian to take the yellow jersey since Greg van Avermaet in 2018

Winner: Yves Lampaert

Report: Lampaert wins stage one as Pogacar impresses

Yves Lampaert wins stage one of the Tour de France as defending champion Tadej Pogacar takes time out of his main rivals in the opening individual time trial in Copenhagen. Lampaert negotiates the wet conditions to finish five seconds ahead of fellow Belgian Wout van Aert while Britain's Adam Yates and Geraint Thomas come 13th and 18th.

Saturday, 2 July - stage two: Roskilde - Nyborg, 202.2km

Fabio Jakobsen (front left) is making his Tour de France debut

Winner: Fabio Jakobsen

Report: Jakobsen edges stage two in sprint finish

Fabio Jakobsen edges a thrilling sprint finish in Nyborg as Belgium's Wout van Aert claims the yellow jersey. Jakobsen's triumph comes after several crashes, with defending champion Tadej Pogacar and four-time winner Chris Froome caught up in a large pile-up inside the final 3km.

Sunday, 3 July - stage three: Vejle - Sonderborg, 182km

Dylan Groenewegen (front centre) had not won a stage at the Tour since 2019

Winner: Dylan Groenewegen

Report: Groenewegen wins stage three of Tour in photo finish

Dylan Groenewegen snatches victory in a thrilling photo finish as Wout van Aert retains the leader's yellow jersey after finishing second for a third consecutive stage. The Tour's final day in Denmark also sees British riders Adam Yates and Tom Pidcock rise into the top 10 of the general classification, with defending champion Tadej Pogacar fortunate not to be held up by a late crash.

Tuesday, 5 July - stage four: Dunkirk - Calais, 171.5km

Van Aert has now won six stages at the Tour de France - he claimed two victories in 2020, and three last year

Winner: Wout van Aert

Report: Van Aert claims sensational stage four victory

Wout van Aert's sensational escape in the final 10km of stage four gives him his first win at this year's Tour de France and extendes his overall lead. The Belgian had finished second in each of the first three stages of this year's race but this time his plan works to perfection. A breathtaking attack up the final climb sends him clear and he holds on in the closing kilometres into Calais.

Wednesday, 6 July - stage five: Lille Metropole - Arenberg Porte du Hainaut, 157km

Simon Clarke claimed Israel-Premier Tech's first Tour stage victory from a breakaway

Winner: Simon Clarke

Report: Australia's Simon Clarke wins chaotic stage five

Australia's Simon Clarke wins a chaotic stage five after a photo finish as defending champion Tadej Pogacar makes time gains on his general classification rivals. Wout van Aert retains the leaders yellow jersey as crashes see Geraint Thomas and Primoz Roglic lose ground, while a puncture hampers Jonas Vingegaard.

Thursday, 7 July - stage six: Binche - Longwy, 220km

Tadej Pogacar was in the yellow jersey for 14 days at the 2021 Tour

Winner: Tadej Pogacar

Report: Pogacar wins stage six to take overall race lead

Tadej Pogacar sprints away at the finish to win stage six as he moves into the overall lead at the Tour de France. The defending champion's late attack sees him pull clear of Michael Matthews and David Gaudu with British rider Tom Pidcock finishing fourth.

Friday, 8 July - stage seven: Tomblaine - La Super Planche des Belles Filles, 176.5km

Tadej Pogacar is aiming to become the ninth rider to win three editions of the Tour de France

Report: Pogacar wins stage seven to extend overall lead

Defending champion Tadej Pogacar beats Jonas Vingegaard in a thrilling finish at La Super Planche des Belles Filles as he extends his overall race lead. Breakaway rider Lennard Kamna is caught in the final 200m on a punishing climb and eventually finishes fourth on the same time as Britain's Geraint Thomas.

Saturday, 9 July - stage eight: Dole - Lausanne, 186.3km,

Wout van Aert has won eight individual stages at the Tour

Report: Van Aert wins stage eight as Pogacar extends overall lead

Belgium's Wout van Aert sprints to his second stage victory of this year's Tour as Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar extends his overall lead. British trio Tom Pidcock, Geraint Thomas and Adam Yates all finish in the leading group of riders.

Sunday, 10 July - stage nine: Aigle - Chatel Les Portes du Soleil, 192.9km

Bob Jungels is the first rider from Luxembourg to win a stage at the Tour since 2011

Winner: Bob Jungels

Report: Jungels solos to victory on stage nine of Tour

Luxembourg's Bob Jungels solos to a superb victory at the Tour de France on stage nine. Jungels attacks on the penultimate categorised climb and stays clear for over 60km after opening up a gap on the descent. Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar remains the overall race leader and takes time out of most of his general classification rivals, bar Jonas Vingegaard, with a sprint to the line.

Tuesday, 12 July - stage 10: Morzine Les Portes du Soleil - Megeve 148.1km

The race was neutralised 36km before the finish before resuming

Winner: Magnus Cort

Report: Cort wins after 10th stage halted by protest

Magnus Cort pips Nicholas Schultz in a photo finish to win a disrupted 10th stage of the Tour de France after climate activists force a 10-minute delay. Tadej Pogacar retains the leaders yellow jersey while Lennard Kamna jumps up to second overall.

Wednesday, 13 July - stage 11: Albertville - Col du Granon Serre Chevalier, 151.7km

Tadej Pogacar's aura of invincibility slipped as he cracked on the final climb

Winner: Jonas Vingegaard

Report: Vingegaard wins stage 11 to take overall lead from Pogacar

Jonas Vingegaard launches a stunning attack on the final climb to win stage 11 and take the yellow jersey from defending champion Tadej Pogacar. The Slovenian loses nearly three minutes as he drops to third in the general classification behind Romain Bardet, with 2018 champion Geraint Thomas in fourth.

Thursday, 14 July - stage 12: Briancon - Alpe d'Huez, 165.1km

Pidcock is making his Tour debut aged 22 for Ineos Grenadiers,

Winner: Tom Pidcock

Report: Tom Pidcock claims first stage win with Chris Froome third

Tom Pidcock won his maiden Tour de France stage in style with a solo victory atop the iconic Alpe d'Huez. Four-time Tour champion Chris Froome and fellow Briton Pidcock were part of a five-man breakaway during stage 12, before Pidcock broke clear on the final climb to become the youngest winner on the Alpe d'Huez.

Friday, 15 July - stage 13: Le Bourg d'Oisans - Saint-Etienne, 192.6km

Pedersen's win was his first at any of the Grand Tours

Winner: Mads Pedersen

Report: Pedersen surges to stage win

Mads Pedersen produces a powerful final burst to claim victory on stage 13 of the Tour de France. The Dane wins a three-way sprint against Britain's Fred Wright and Canada's Hugo Houle, who are all part of a seven-man breakaway at the start of the day. It is a first Tour stage win for Pedersen, who attacks in the final 250 metres and cannot be caught.

Saturday, 16 July - stage 14: Saint-Etienne - Mende, 192.5km

Matthews' stage win was his first at the Tour de France for five years

Winner: Michael Matthews

Report: Matthews claims brilliant win on stage 14 of Tour

Australian Michael Matthews produces a brilliant ride to win a tough and hilly stage 14 of the Tour de France from Saint-Etienne to Mende. The 31-year-old, who escaped in a 23-man break early in the 192.5km route, is passed by Alberto Bettiol on the final climb, but recovers and overhauls the Italian to clinch the fourth Tour stage win of his career.

Sunday, 17 July - stage 15: Rodez - Carcassonne, 202.5km

Philipsen's win was the first Tour stage victory of his career after eight top-three finishes, including second-place on the Champs-Elysees in 2021

Winner: Jasper Philipsen

Report: Philipsen sprints to victory

Belgium's Jasper Philipsen sprints to win stage 15 of the Tour de France as race leader Jonas Vingegaard survives a crash but loses two key team-mates. Primoz Roglic abandons through injury before the stage begins, and another Jumbo-Visma rider Steven Kruijswijk crashes out with 65km to go. Vingegaard comes off his bike in a pile-up soon afterwards but continues despite landing heavily on his head.

Tuesday, 19 July - stage 16: Carcassonne - Foix,178.5km

Hugo Houle had never won a road race before his victory on stage 16 of the Tour de France

Winner: Hugo Houle

Report: Houle takes superb solo victory

Canada's Hugo Houle claims his first Tour stage win with a brilliant solo ride to victory in Foix. It is the first major triumph of the 31-year-old's career and he becomes the first Canadian to win on the Tour since Steve Bauer in 1988. Bauer is now sporting director of Houle's Israel-Premier Tech team and his team-mate and compatriot Michael Woods finishes third behind France's Valentin Madouas.

Wednesday, 20 July - stage 17: Saint-Gaudens - Peyragudes,129.7km

UAE Emirates team were reduced to just four members after Rafal Majka withdrew because of a thigh injury before stage 17

Report: Pogacar beats Vingegaard in uphill sprint

Tadej Pogacar edges out Jonas Vingegaard in an uphill sprint to win stage 17 but he is ultimately unable to break the race leader on an epic mountain stage. The victory sees defending champion Pogacar cut Vingegaard's overall lead by four bonus seconds, with the Dane leading by two minutes and 18 seconds going into the final mountain stage. Britain's Geraint Thomas finishes fourth to stay third overall.

Thursday, 21 July - stage 18: Lourdes - Hautacam,143.2km

Jonas Vingegaard extended his lead over Tadej Pogacar to three mins 26secs

Report: Vingegaard wins on Hautacam to move closer to overall victory

Jonas Vingegaard moves one step closer to winning the 2022 Tour de France as he extends his overall lead with a stunning stage 18 victory. Defending champion Tadej Pogacar finishes second, one minute and four seconds behind, after he is dropped by Vingegaard and his Jumbo Visma team-mate Wout van Aert on the final climb on the Hautacam. In a brilliant act of sportsmanship earlier in the race, Vingegaard waits for and shakes hands with Pogacar after the Slovenian rider crashed.

Friday, 22 July - stage 19: Castelnau-Magnoac - Cahors,188.3km

Only in 1926 and 1999 has France ended the Tour de France without a stage winner

Winner: Christophe Laporte

Report: Laporte sprints to victory in Cahors

Christophe Laporte delivers the home nation's first stage win at the 2022 Tour de France as he sprints to victory on stage 19, while Jumbo Visma team-mate Jonas Vingegaard arrives safely in Cahors to move another day closer to securing his maiden overall triumph. Britain's Fred Wright is the last man standing from a break but he is passed by Laporte inside the final 500 metres.

Saturday, 23 July - stage 20: Lacapelle-Marival - Rocamadour, 40.7km

Wout van Aert received the Combativity award for being the most combative rider during the overall race

Report: Vingegaard set for victory as Van Aert wins time trial

Wout van Aert wins the stage 20 individual time trial on the penultimate day of the 2022 Tour as Jumbo Visma team-mate and overall leader Jonas Vingegaard finishes second to ensure he will wear the yellow jersey in Paris. Van Aert clocks 47 minutes 59 seconds to finish 19 seconds ahead of Vingegaard, who extends his advantage over Tadej Pogacar to three minutes and 34 seconds.

Sunday, 24 July - stage 21: Paris La Defense Arena - Paris Champs-Elysees, 115.6km

Jasper Philipsen claimed his second stage win of the 2022 Tour on the iconic Champs-Elysees

Report: Vingegaard crowned champion as Philipsen wins in Paris

Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard secures his first Tour de France victory as Jasper Philipsen wins the sprint on the final stage in Paris. The Belgian is an easy winner on the iconic Champs-Elysees, while Vingegaard finishes alongside his Jumbo-Visma team-mates to confirm his win. He beats 2021 champion Tadej Pogacar by two minutes 43 seconds in the general classification, while Britain's former winner Geraint Thomas is third overall.

Related Topics

Related internet links.

British Cycling

International Cycling Union

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

Tour de France 2022: Fabio Jakobsen wins stage two – as it happened

Fabio Jaksobsen capped his remarkable comeback from a life-threatening crash to win his first Tour de France stage in Nyborg

• 2 Jul 2022 Stage 2 Top 10
• 2 Jul 2022 Fabio Jakobsen wins Tour de France Stage 2!
• 2 Jul 2022 19.5km to go: Lampaert, the yellow jersey, crashes!
• 2 Jul 2022 They're racing on Stage 2!
• 2 Jul 2022 Preamble

Wout van Aert is into the yellow jersey after his second-placed finish today. At one point Lampaert, trying to lead out Jakobsen in yellow, looked strong enough to power away and take his second consecutive stage win. But Jakobsen, in a heartwarming comeback tale, won it in the end. Thanks for reading and emailing and see you soon for more.

This is Stage 3: another flat one, another one for the sprinters:

Jeremy Whittle’s Stage 2 report:

Stage 2 Top 10

1) Jakobsen (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) 2) Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) 3) Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) 4) Van Poppel (Bora-Hansgrohe) 5) Philipsen Alpecin-Deceuninck 6) Sagan (Total Energies) 7) Lecroq (B&B Hotels KTM) 8) Groenewegen (Team BikeExchange-Jayco) 9) Mozzato (B&B Hotels KTM) 10) Hofstetter (Team Arkea-Samsic)

Jakobsen speaks: “Today is “ incroyable ” as we would say in French ... for me it was a long process, step by step. A lot of people helped me along the way. This is to pay them back to see that that it was not for nothing. I’m happy that I can still ride the bike and enjoy racing. I’d like to help everyone who helped me to get to here.

“The team kept me in a good position ... on the final straight ... I was next to Sagan. We kind of touched each other but luckily we stayed upright ... then I just had the final stretch of 150m when I could pass the other two. I’m very happy to win. If I tell it like that, it sounds easy, but the legs were in pain. This is what we train for ... I hope everyone enjoyed watching.”

Jakobsen has done so incredibly well to fight back from that horrendous crash. And now he has his first Tour de France stage win. Well done.

Pedersen looked strong there. He looked well set for the win. But Van Aert managed to get back on terms, and he was suddenly the favourite, before the sheer pace of Jakobsen allowed him to take it by about half a wheel.

EF Pro Cycling will be relieved that they managed to get Uran back in the bunch before the finish and will be thrilled that Magnus Cort got himself into the polka-dots on home roads.

The bridge, apart from the crash for Lampaert and others, did not prove that dramatic. But the finish was incredibly hectic.

Fabio Jakobsen wins Tour de France Stage 2!

That was a bit of a messy sprint and a messy leadout but the pre-stage favourite, Fabio Jakobsen, wins in Nyborg! Mads Pedersen and Wout van Aert were right up there, but it is two in two for Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl.

Lampaert was on the front with about 600metres to go, but looked back and realised his teammates were not there. Trek-Segafredo then took it up for Pedersen, and the Danish rider looked set for a home stage win with 100m to go. Van Aert bounced back to move neck-and-neck with Pedersen, but Jakobsen ghosted up beyond both of them and sealed an excellent win.

1km to go: Final km! It’s a bunch sprint!

2.2km to go: BIG crash. I think Jakobsen made it through ... he did indeed. But it will be a reduced bunch sprint.

3.5km to go: Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl have taken it up at the front, working for Jakobsen. Jumbo-Visma there too. The peloton takes a big right-hander – it’s tight, but it looks like everyone makes it through ok, with the exception of Bob Jungels, who loses his back wheel of his own accord.

5km to go: Trek-Segafredo, Bahrain-Merida and Ineos are among the teams powering away at the front. This has been a massive effort to get across the bridge in this wind. And we are about to really crank up for the “final”.

7km to go: “There will be a furious acceleration as they leave this bridge,” says David Millar on ITV4. It looks like it’s a bit of a ceasefire until they get off the bridge.

8km to go: The front of the bunch continues to battle into the headwind. Who is going to have the best positioning, and the freshest legs, when it comes to the sprint finish? We still have around 5km of bridge to cover.

10km to go: Not much happening up front. All is calm. The main excitement is the fact that Uran and his mates have got back among the team cars so they are well set to get back in the peloton. They still have 44” to make up. As it stands, this is shaping up to be a big bunch sprint, and the winner will almost certainly come from the big favourites.

14km to go: According to the official Le Tour site, Uran is back in the peloton, but I am not sure if that is correct ... and indeed it is not. They have updated to make it clear he is in the chase group, which is a minute behind. Bettiol and Doull are there to help Uran.

16km to go: Lampaert gets back in the peloton. Back down the road, Uran and teammates are fighting to get back in touch with the main bunch. At this stage, it looks like that Lampaert crash is going to be the biggest drama we see on this bridge.

18km to go: The fact that it’s turned out to be a headwind rather than a crosswind on this bridge is going to mean it’s much more difficult to make a meaningful attack stick. Lampaert now has a couple of teammates with him as they attempt to get him back into the bunch.

19.5km to go: Lampaert, the yellow jersey, crashes!

There is a crash on the left-hand side of the road. Yves Lampaert is one of the riders to go down. Several of them have gone down heavily. Alberto Dainese (Team DSM) is another one of them. Up at the front, the riders are visibly labouring in the wind. Lampaert is getting some help from a team car to get back on.

21km to go: For the next 18km, the peloton will be on the bridge. The early signs are that teams will attack, although nothing has stuck yet.

22km to go: A crash in the peloton. Rigoberto Urán (EF Education-Easypost) is involved, he gets a new bike, and has to try and chase back on. There is a split caused by that accident but it looks like all the big sprinters are still up at the front.

24km to go: I can’t help wondering if we will see another shock winner today. Hopefully not due to a crash, of course, but there may well be splits, and the favourite sprinters could be taken out of the picture if there are different groups on the road.

29km to go: The riders are winding around the narrow roads as the bridge, which has dominated all the talk of how this stage may pan out, draws ever closer. Ineos, Jumbo-Visma and Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl are among the teams up at the front.

As David Millar just said on ITV4, while all the hype has been about the bridge, there is a chance the peloton ‘might slightly neutralise’ when they hit it.

31km to go: The catch is made. The peloton rumbles past Bystrom, who is on the left of the road. The pace in the bunch leaps up momentarily, then it all seems to calm down again.

36km to go: Bystrom, the 30-year-old who was born in Haugesund, Norway, continues his charge at the front. But the gap is down to 15”. There is definitely a sense of a calm before the storm. Who is going to make a move on the bridge? Maybe everyone is. We will definitely see attacks. Will some teams and riders gain time? Will some of them be out of contention in under an hour?

38km to go: After another 17km, the riders will hit the bridge. There is a crash in the bunch, a couple of riders are down, but I think everyone is OK. Krists Neilands (Israel–Premier Tech) was one of them. He’s back on his bike.

40km to go: Some fan artwork on the roadside in tribute to the late Chris Anker Sørensen. The Danish cyclist, who rode in the Tour five times before becoming a TV commentator, died last year after his bike was struck by a van driver in Belgium.

Bystrom pushes on. He has 28”. He’s asking the question, anyway ... if there was a big crash he would be in pole position for the stage win.

43km to go: Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) has a puncture and a teammate waits for him while he gets a wheel change. The peloton is winding through some very picturesque villages. There are plenty of fans, but not nearly as many as there were on those three climbs earlier in the day. The gap is 25”.

45km to go: Bystrom has 32”. Team Ineos, led at the moment by Tom Pidcock, can be seen up at the front on the left-hand side of the road.

49km to go: The average speed overall is 43.7km so far today. Which is high, especially considering the wind speed.

From the end of the bridge to the end of the stage, there is just 3km, so we are definitely going to see action when the peloton is coming across it.

51km to go: The gap is down to 41”. Is it time to make the catch? The bunch is speeding on the tarmac through a flat, grassy area as they get closer to the infamous bridge. The flags at roadside are fluttering significantly.

pic.twitter.com/Xg3w5Oi2hL — Cycling out of context (@OutOfCycling) July 2, 2022

52km to go: Bystrom powers on alone up front. The gap is 52”. This is a huge ride from the Norwegian.

Meanwhile ...

“Afternoon Luke, My “Denmark Anecdote” for what it’s worth is that I’ve got a mate who lives in Copenhagen ... apart from that Jon Dahl Tomasson used to play for the Toon (before AC Milan). Like I said “for what it’s worth”. Em, Newcastle.”

Lovely stuff.

57km to go: Bystrom is now out in front on his own, and he has a gap which has flown out to 54”. It appears that the peloton suddenly decided they didn’t want to make the catch too early? Anyway, Cort has been swallowed up by the bunch.

62km to go: A really good flavour of the atmosphere at the finish area in Nyborg, thanks to an email from Guy Dammann:

“I can happily confirm that here at the race finish in Nyborg staring down the windy bridge the roadside vibe is terrific, the crowds slamming the barriers with unbridled passion every time one of the amateur cycling groups who have permission to ride the route in advance breeze past.

“The curb-side is strewn with bicycles of all kinds, from fancy racers to cargo bikes. The audio is a mixture of French commentary and Taylor Swift songs and the visuals are dominated by freebie caps advertising brands like Leclerc which mean little to most here. The really cool people are pushing brands like Mercier and Gan which are really only remembered for their connection with great tour teams of the past. The sun is beating down but the only sun lotion in view seems to be the froth on the copious amounts of Tuborg and Carlsberg. Someone mentioned Roskilde as being the biggest festival in Northern Europe but I think they’ll find right now it’s the Tour de France . Anyway as the gap closes and the peloton draws nearer to the bridge I am going to head back into the mosh pit and catch the headline act which I believe is a bicycle race.”

Thanks for your email Guy, and enjoy the day.

61km to go: The gap between break and peloton has plunged to 13”. Cort and Bystrom’s days are numbered up at the front.

63km to go: All hands on deck for the sprinter’s teams and indeed the GC teams up at the front. The wind is blowing at about 29mph and gusting at more than that on the bridge. The peloton are into a headwind right now, but there is a sense that there is going to be danger from crosswinds all the way from here to the finish.

66km to go: Alejandro Valverde has apparently been hit by a car while training, and has been taken to hospital. Get well soon.

67km to go: Andre Souchon, who says he’s ‘on foot in Nyborg’, chips in: “The great belt bridge (which is coming up) is the world’s sixth-longest main span [suspension] bridge. And costs a fortune to cross, £29 without rebates.”

Thanks Andre. Yes, according to my research, you can get it down to about £21 using automatic payment via number plate recognition. Still pretty punchy.

The gap between Cort and Bystrom and the chasing bunch is 41”. Only a matter of time, but the peloton don’t really want to catch them too soon either.

73km to go: “If you find the two church towers in the skyline, this is the cathedral where nearly all Danish queens and kings are interred,” Michael Sorensen writes of Roskilde. “The Danish royal family has a straight line going back to around 1300, one of the oldest in the world.”

Meanwhile, looking ahead to the stage finish, a bit of history from Wiki:

“The March Across the Belts (Swedish: Tåget över Bält) was a military campaign waged by the Swedish Empire across the ice between the Danish islands. It lasted between 30 January and 15 February 1658, ending with a decisive victory for Swedish King Charles X Gustav during his first Danish war.”

74km to go: Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) wins the race for third place in the intermediate sprint, after Cort and Bystrom went through only about 30” earlier. The Australian didn’t even get out of third gear there.

75km to go: No, sorry that was wrong. The sprint point isn’t downhill. There was a green arch over the road, but the sprint point is a bit further on a stretch of flat, straight road, under a much bigger green arch.

76km to go: The gap is down to 55”. The peloton is fanned right across the road with a number of teams jostling for position. It’s going to be a super-fast sprint too, it’s downhill and on a slight jink in the road to the right.

78km to go: Intermediate sprint coming up ... points to play for in view of there only being two men in the break. As a result, the heat is on at the front of the peloton. They are a little under 5km from the sprint point. The gap to the break is plunging and is down to 1’07”.

81km to go: “Hi Luke - are doing the name the breakaway this year?” asks JimD via Twitter.

Sure we are, Jim.

“If so, Cyril Barthe, Pierre Rolland, Sven Erik Bystrom and Magnus Cort are a troupe of circus tumblers roaming the pre-Revolutionary French countryside.”

For clarity, we only have Bystrom and Cort in the break now, I apologise for not checking my Twitter DMs more often.

83km to go: Judging by this picture which includes a windsock on one of the Great Belt bridges, the final is going to be very windy indeed, and very tasty indeed.

A wind sock for proof of wind direction. A certifiable crosswind. #TDF2022 pic.twitter.com/bEtnBuHvdR — Aindriú O'Shea (@SadhbhOS) July 2, 2022

The gap is 1’59”.

87km to go: The gap is 2’19”. The riders up the road are:

Sven Erik Bystrom (Intermarché–Wanty–Gobert Matériaux) Magnus Cort (EF Education–EasyPost)

90 km to go: Roskilde news!

“In Sweden Roskilde is by far most known for the annual rock/music festival with huge crowds sleeping (well, not much…) in tents, consuming alcohol and other substances whilst watching and listening to big bands and artists of today and yesterday,” emails Jonas Wedin.

“The Roskilde Festival is on right now celebrating its 50 year anniversary!” adds Mikkel Dyrting “It’s the biggest music festival in northern Europe.”

Lynge Lauritsen, however, bills it as follows: “The Roskilde Festival (which ends this weekend) is the second-largest music festival in Europe and the largest in Scandinavia.”

94km to go: Dan Lloyd, on commentary for Eurosport, observed a while back that the front two of Cort and Bystrom will push on in the hope that there will be some disruption in the crosswinds later. Chances are it’ll be a sprint finish, but anything could happen with these narrow roads and winds. Apparently Christian Prudhomme was quoted as saying he was hoping there would be drama of some sort, so it’s a deliberate thing by the race organisers to spice this stage up.

100km to go: We are past the halfway mark of stage 2, between Roskilde and Nyborg. The gap between break and peloton is 2’50”. It’s a two-man break: the previous escapees, Rolland and Barthe, have been swallowed up by the peloton.

I know almost nothing about Roskilde, although I can tell you that Faith No More definitely played there at some point in the 1990s, because I had a t-shirt with “The Real Thing” tour dates on it.

Anyone got any Roskilde anecdotes? Denmark anecdotes? Please, do get in touch on email or Twitter

104km to go: Home fans go wild for Magnus Cort, the king of the “mountains”.

A very special moment 🇩🇰 @MagnusCort https://t.co/5GVutpD0ka pic.twitter.com/BAyGhZFiYw — Grand Départ 2022 🇩🇰 (@letourdk) July 2, 2022

106km to go: I should mention that Bystrom is from Norway, so with Cort, there’s a Dane and a Norwegian up the road. Entirely fitting for this Danish grand départ .

109km to go: Gary Naylor chips in regarding the narrow lanes and pinch points on these climbs. The all-stage TV coverage is part of it but I think it’s more the Team Sky/Ineos-ification of how teams ride GC. Everyone wants their rider or riders near the front, everyone is fighting for the same space on the road, far more so than in days gone by. And that makes it much more dangerous and stressful.

In days gone by, a patron would calm the peloton and ensure they got through pinch points and hazards @LukeMcLaughlin . I mean, you try arguing with Bernard Hinault. All stage TV coverage has made the front of the race more desirable and, once one team goes, they all have to. — Gary Naylor (@garynaylor999) July 2, 2022

109km to go: The last remaining milestone on the route, if you don’t count that wind-lashed bridge, is the intermediate sprint, which arrives with 75.3km to go.

114km to go: I knew those names rang a bell.

@LukeMcLaughlin Hi Luke, so good to see Rolland and Barthe together, I remember when they wrote that book about racing! pic.twitter.com/FyGhWCmyaz — Toby Cranford (@UrbanGriller) July 2, 2022

116km to go: Absolute scenes.

117km to go: Cort dominates the two-man sprint for the final climb of the day. He celebrates as he takes it – he is three from three for the climbs today, he has mopped up the three available KOM points, and he will be in polka-dots tomorrow.

118km to go: Cort and Bystrom are on the third and final categorised climb, the Côte de Kårup Strandbakke. The two chasers are 56” back and the gap between break and peloton is 3’07”.

• Tour de France

Most viewed

Jakobsen wins Tour de France stage two as Van Aert takes yellow

• Medium Text

Sign up here.

Reporting by Dhruv Munjal in Bengaluru; editing by Clare Fallon

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. New Tab , opens new tab

Lifestyle Chevron

Inspired by 'The Crown', new series explores Gandhi's early life

The years of Mahatma Gandhi when he was a shy young man who had yet to become the revered father of a nation are being brought back to life in a historic London pub and other British venues for a new television series.

German company HyImpulse successfully launched on Friday a candle wax-powered rocket capable of carrying commercial satellites on a test suborbital flight into space for the first time.

• Milano Cortina 2026
• Brisbane 2032
• Olympic Refuge Foundation
• Olympic Games
• Olympic Channel
• Let's Move

Fabio Jakobsen wins stage 2 as Wout van Aert takes overall lead at Tour de France 2022 - Results

Find out what happened in the 202.2km-stage from Roskilde to Nyborg in Denmark on the second day in the saddle for riders at the men's Grand Tour event.

Fabio Jakobsen won stage two of road cycling 's 2022 Tour de France on Saturday (2 July).

The 202.2km ride from Roskilde to Nyborg in Denmark, where this year's edition of the men's grand tour event is starting, saw several crashes.

Stage one winner Yves Lampaert of the Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl team fell on the 18km long Great Belt Bridge.

A large crash with less than 3km to the finish prevented several top names competing in the sprint finish, but Lampaert's teammate, Dutchman Jakobsen on his race debut, beat Wout van Aert to the line.

Belgian rider van Aert did enough to take the overall leader's yellow jersey.

The riders have their third and final Danish stage on Sunday, a 182km trip between Vejle and Sonderborg, before travelling to France on Monday.

2022 Tour de France: Stage 2 results - Saturday 2 July

• Fabio Jakobsen (Netherlands): 4:34:34
• Wout van Aert (Belgium) +00
• Mads Pedersen (Denmark) +00 
• Danny van Poppel (Netherlands) +00
• Jasper Philipsen (Belgium) +00
• Peter Sagan (Slovakia) +00
• Jeremy Lecroq (France) +00
• Dylan Groenewgen (Netherlands) +00
• Luca Mozzato (Italy) +00
• Hugo Hofstetter (France).

2022 Tour de France: General classification standings after stage 2 on Saturday 2 July

• Wout van Aert (Belgium) 4:49:50
• Yves Lampaert (Belgium) +01.
• Tadej Pogacar (Slovenia) +08.

Full rankings are available on the official Tour de France website.

Schedule and stage winners: Day-by-day route of 2022 Tour de France

Fri 1 July: Stage 1 – Copenhagen-Copenhagen (time trial, 13.2 km) - Won by Yves Lampaert (Belgium), who also took the yellow jersey for overall lead of the race's general classification.

Sat 2 July: Stage 2 – Roskilde-Nyborg (202.5 km) - Won by Fabio Jakobsen (Netherlands) . Wout van Aert (Belgium) claims overall race lead.

Sun 3 July: Stage 3 – Vejle-Sonderborg (182 km)

Mon 4 July: Transfer Day - from Denmark to France.

Tue 5 July: Stage 4 – Dunkerque-Calais (171.5 km)

Wed 6 July: Stage 5 – Lille Metropole-Arenburg Porte du Hainaut (157 km)

Thu 7 July: Stage 6 – Binche-Longwhy (220km)

Fri 8 July: Stage 7 – Tomblaine-La Super Planche de Belle Filles (176.5 km)

Sat 9 July: Stage 8 – Dole-Lausanne (186.5km)

Sunday 10 July: Stage 9 – Aigle-Chatel les Portes du Soleil (193km)

Monday 11 July: Rest Day

Tuesday 12 July: Stage 10 – Morzine Les Portes du Soleil-Megeve (148.5km)

Wednesday 13 July: Stage 11 – Albertville-Col du Granon Serre Chevalier (152km)

Thursday 14 July: Stage 12 – Briancon-Alpe d’Huez (165.5km)

Friday 15 July: Stage 13 – Le Bourg d’Oisans-Saint Etienne (193km)

Saturday 16 July: Stage 14 – Saint Etienne-Mende (192.5km)

Sunday 17 July: Stage 15 – Rodez-Carcassonne (202.5km)

Monday 18 July: Rest Day

Tuesday 19 July: Stage 16 – Carcassonne-Foix (178,5km)

Wednesday 20 July: Stage 17 – Saint-Gaudens-Peyragudes (130km)

Thursday 21 July: Stage 18 – Lourdes-Hautacam (143.5km)

Friday 22 July: Stage 19 – Castelnau-Magnoac – Cahors (188.5km)

Saturday 23 July: Stage 20 – Lacapelle-Marival - Rocamadour (time trial, 40.7km)

Sunday 24 July: Stage 21 – Paris La Defence Arena – Paris Champs Elysees (116km)

Related content

Yves Lampaert stuns Wout van Aert to win stage 1 at Tour de France 2022 - Results

Jai Hindley crowned 2022 Giro d'Italia winner as Matteo Sobrero takes stage 21 in Verona - Results

Tadej Pogacar: Five facts about the 2021 Tour de France winner who is heading to Japan for the Olympics

Tadej Pogacar completes superb solo victory in Strade Bianche

Tadej Pogacar wins 2021 Il Lombardia in thrilling sprint finish

You may like.

Fabio Jakobsen takes second stage of Tour de France, as Wout van Aert claims yellow jersey

Sport Fabio Jakobsen takes second stage of Tour de France, as Wout van Aert claims yellow jersey

Dutchman Fabio Jakobsen has claimed the second stage of the Tour de France, a 202.2km flat ride from Roskilde to Nyborg, in a stunning sprint finish after pulling ahead of Wout van Aert and Mads Pedersen.

Key points:

• Fabio Jakobsen has won the second stage of the Tour de France
• It caps an incredible comeback for Jakobsen, who spent two days in an induced coma during a crash in a race in 2020
• Wout van Aert finished second and has claimed the yellow jersey

The win capped a remarkable comeback for the 25-year-old Jakobsen after he spent two days in an induced coma in 2020 following a high-speed crash during the Tour of Poland.

Jakobsen's victory was the second in a row for Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl, who also enjoyed Yves Lampaert's surprise win in Friday's time trial. It was the team's 50th stage triumph since their Tour debut in 2002.

Van Aert's push at the end meant the Team Jumbo-Visma rider took the yellow jersey from fellow Belgian Lampaert, who was involved in a late crash but recovered to remain second in the general classification.

Two-times defending champion Tadej Pogacar crossed the line three minutes behind after suffering a double puncture but did not lose any time as the incident occurred within 3 kilometres of the finish. The Slovenian is third overall.

"Today is 'incroyable' as we would say in French," Jakobsen said.

"For me it was a long process, step by step. A lot of people helped me along the way. This is to pay them back so they can see it was not for nothing.

"I'm happy I still enjoy riding the bike and racing and luckily I can still win. It's an amazing day and I'd like to thank all the people that helped me to be here."

The finish looked like a two-way tussle between van Aert and Pedersen, but Jakobsen, who was selected ahead of Briton Mark Cavendish, accelerated over the last few metres to take the win in his debut on the Tour.

There was chaos in the closing stages as a huge crash blocked the route but the sprinters ensured a thrilling finale to a stage that offered little drama early on.

"Classic Tour de France stage with crashes and everything. You need to be focused all day," said van Aert.

"Second place but really nice jersey in the end. It's a big day for me, I got some disappointments before but today I'm finally getting it, it's quite an achievement."

Earlier, the day's breakaway was led by Norwegian Sven Erik Bystrom, who was out in front on his own for a while before being overhauled by the peloton with about 30km to go.

Sunday's stage three is a 182km flat ride from Vejle to Sonderborg.

• X (formerly Twitter)
• Cycle Sport
• Road Cycle Racing

• Subscribers
• EDITORS PICK // TOP TWO CYCLING LIGHTS FOR 2023
• TOP TWO CYCLING LIGHTS FOR 2023
• TECH TUESDAY: DEALINGS WITH SHIMANO DI2
• ALL ABOUT WIND TRAINERS AND INDOOR CYCLING
• WHAT YOUR PRESTA VALVE CAPS ARE ACTUALLY FOR
• BIKE TEST: ALLIED ECHO
• ALL ABOUT AIR & HOW-TO FIGHT FLAT TIRES
• PINARELLO F SERIES – WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE ALL-NEW RACE BIKES
• CANNONDALE UNVEILS SLEEK 2023 ROAD LINE-UP
• THROWBACK THURSDAY, 2015: ALEX DOWSETT BREAKS THE HOUR RECORD

2022 TOUR DE FRANCE STAGE 2 RESULTS

Fabio Jakobsen barged his way to the win on stage 2 of the Tour de France. It was a physical affair in the final meters with Jakobsen coming in contact with three-time world champion Peter Sagan as they battled for Wout van Aert’s wheel and wound up their efforts. Jakobsen edged Wout van Aert and Mads Pedersen at the line with Sagan in sixth.

Crashes marred the finale 20 miles, with a handful a riders including race leader Yves Lampaert, Rigoberto Uran and Alberto Dainese forced to chase over the final miles to rejoin the peloton. In the final 2 miles a massive crash blocked the road forcing all but the top 30 riders to navigate the chaos.

On Sunday the riders will face 113 miles between  Vejl to Sonderborg before resuming racing in France on Tuesday.

TOUR DE FRANCE 2022 NEWS

OVERALL STANDINGS

2022 tdf stage 2 results, 2022 tdf stage 2 gc standings, 2022 tdf stage 2 sprint points, 2022 tdf stage 2 kom points, 2022 tdf stage 2 young rider.

Photos: Sprint Cycling Agency

Get real time updates directly on you device, subscribe now.

2022 TOUR DE FRANCE STAGE 2 ROUTE PREVIEW

ALEJANDRO VALVERDE TAKEN TO HOSPITAL AFTER HIT AND RUN CRASH

A MOMENT IN TIME, 2011: WHEN THE UCI STRIPPED MAVIC AT THE TOUR DE FRANCE

THROWBACK THURSDAY, 2018: FROM THE PRO PELOTON TO SHIMANO TEST RIDER

THROWBACK THURSDAY, 2008: MEMORIES OF TEAM LANCE – BEFORE THE FALL

BREAKING NEWS: CAVENDISH GETS HIS CHANCE TO BEAT MERCKX

Comments are closed.

We and our {{count}} partners use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your experience on our website. We may store and/or access information on a device and process personal data, such as your IP address and browsing data, for personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development. Additionally, we may utilize precise geolocation data and identification through device scanning.

Please note that your consent will be valid across all our subdomains. You can change or withdraw your consent at any time by clicking the “Consent Preferences” button at the bottom of your screen. We respect your choices and are committed to providing you with a transparent and secure browsing experience.

Privacy Overview

• Most purposes explained in this notice rely on the storage or accessing of information from your device when you use an app or visit a website. For example, a vendor or publisher might need to store a cookie on your device during your first visit on a website, to be able to recognise your device during your next visits (by accessing this cookie each time).
• A car manufacturer wants to promote its electric vehicles to environmentally conscious users living in the city after office hours. The advertising is presented on a page with related content (such as an article on climate change actions) after 6:30 p.m. to users whose non-precise location suggests that they are in an urban zone.
• A large producer of watercolour paints wants to carry out an online advertising campaign for its latest watercolour range, diversifying its audience to reach as many amateur and professional artists as possible and avoiding showing the ad next to mismatched content (for instance, articles about how to paint your house). The number of times that the ad has been presented to you is detected and limited, to avoid presenting it too often.
• If you read several articles about the best bike accessories to buy, this information could be used to create a profile about your interest in bike accessories. Such a profile may be used or improved later on, on the same or a different website or app to present you with advertising for a particular bike accessory brand. If you also look at a configurator for a vehicle on a luxury car manufacturer website, this information could be combined with your interest in bikes to refine your profile and make an assumption that you are interested in luxury cycling gear.
• An apparel company wishes to promote its new line of high-end baby clothes. It gets in touch with an agency that has a network of clients with high income customers (such as high-end supermarkets) and asks the agency to create profiles of young parents or couples who can be assumed to be wealthy and to have a new child, so that these can later be used to present advertising within partner apps based on those profiles.
• An online retailer wants to advertise a limited sale on running shoes. It wants to target advertising to users who previously looked at running shoes on its mobile app. Tracking technologies might be used to recognise that you have previously used the mobile app to consult running shoes, in order to present you with the corresponding advertisement on the app.
• A profile created for personalised advertising in relation to a person having searched for bike accessories on a website can be used to present the relevant advertisement for bike accessories on a mobile app of another organisation.
• You read several articles on how to build a treehouse on a social media platform. This information might be added to a profile to mark your interest in content related to outdoors as well as do-it-yourself guides (with the objective of allowing the personalisation of content, so that for example you are presented with more blog posts and articles on treehouses and wood cabins in the future).
• You have viewed three videos on space exploration across different TV apps. An unrelated news platform with which you have had no contact builds a profile based on that viewing behaviour, marking space exploration as a topic of possible interest for other videos.
• You read articles on vegetarian food on a social media platform and then use the cooking app of an unrelated company. The profile built about you on the social media platform will be used to present you vegetarian recipes on the welcome screen of the cooking app.
• You have viewed three videos about rowing across different websites. An unrelated video sharing platform will recommend five other videos on rowing that may be of interest to you when you use your TV app, based on a profile built about you when you visited those different websites to watch online videos.
• You have clicked on an advertisement about a “black Friday” discount by an online shop on the website of a publisher and purchased a product. Your click will be linked to this purchase. Your interaction and that of other users will be measured to know how many clicks on the ad led to a purchase.
• You are one of very few to have clicked on an advertisement about an “international appreciation day” discount by an online gift shop within the app of a publisher. The publisher wants to have reports to understand how often a specific ad placement within the app, and notably the “international appreciation day” ad, has been viewed or clicked by you and other users, in order to help the publisher and its partners (such as agencies) optimise ad placements.
• You have read a blog post about hiking on a mobile app of a publisher and followed a link to a recommended and related post. Your interactions will be recorded as showing that the initial hiking post was useful to you and that it was successful in interesting you in the related post. This will be measured to know whether to produce more posts on hiking in the future and where to place them on the home screen of the mobile app.
• You were presented a video on fashion trends, but you and several other users stopped watching after 30 seconds. This information is then used to evaluate the right length of future videos on fashion trends.
• The owner of an online bookstore wants commercial reporting showing the proportion of visitors who consulted and left its site without buying, or consulted and bought the last celebrity autobiography of the month, as well as the average age and the male/female distribution of each category. Data relating to your navigation on its site and to your personal characteristics is then used and combined with other such data to produce these statistics.
• An advertiser wants to better understand the type of audience interacting with its adverts. It calls upon a research institute to compare the characteristics of users who interacted with the ad with typical attributes of users of similar platforms, across different devices. This comparison reveals to the advertiser that its ad audience is mainly accessing the adverts through mobile devices and is likely in the 45-60 age range.
• A technology platform working with a social media provider notices a growth in mobile app users, and sees based on their profiles that many of them are connecting through mobile connections. It uses a new technology to deliver ads that are formatted for mobile devices and that are low-bandwidth, to improve their performance.
• An advertiser is looking for a way to display ads on a new type of consumer device. It collects information regarding the way users interact with this new kind of device to determine whether it can build a new mechanism for displaying advertising on this type of device.
• A travel magazine has published an article on its website about the new online courses proposed by a language school, to improve travelling experiences abroad. The school’s blog posts are inserted directly at the bottom of the page, and selected on the basis of your non-precise location (for instance, blog posts explaining the course curriculum for different languages than the language of the country you are situated in).
• A sports news mobile app has started a new section of articles covering the most recent football games. Each article includes videos hosted by a separate streaming platform showcasing the highlights of each match. If you fast-forward a video, this information may be used to select a shorter video to play next.
• An advertising intermediary delivers ads from various advertisers to its network of partnering websites. It notices a large increase in clicks on ads relating to one advertiser, and uses data regarding the source of the clicks to determine that 80% of the clicks come from bots rather than humans.
• Clicking on a link in an article might normally send you to another page or part of the article. To achieve this, 1°) your browser sends a request to a server linked to the website, 2°) the server answers back (“here is the article you asked for”), using technical information automatically included in the request sent by your device, to properly display the information / images that are part of the article you asked for. Technically, such exchange of information is necessary to deliver the content that appears on your screen.

Who Won the 2022 Tour de France?

Your stage-by-stage guide to the winners of the 2022 Tour.

Gear-obsessed editors choose every product we review. We may earn commission if you buy from a link. How we test gear.

Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) won the yellow jersey as the overall winner of the 2022 Tour de France. The 25-year-old outlasted two-time defending champion Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) of Slovenia to win his first Tour. Pogačar finished second, 2:43 back of Vingegaard, and Great Britain's Geraint Thomas (INEOS Grenadiers) was third, 7:22 behind the lead, to round out the podium for the Tour's General Classification.

Here’s a look at how every stage of the 2022 Tour unfolded.

Stage 21 - Jasper Philipsen

Who Won the Tour?

Surrounded by his teammates, Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) finished safely behind the peloton at the end of Stage 21 in Paris to win the 2022 Tour de France. The Dane won the Tour by 3:34 over Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), who started the race as the two-time defending champion, and 8:13 over Great Britain’s Geraint Thomas (INEOS Grenadiers), who won the Tour in 2018 and finished second in 2019.

Belgium’s Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) won the field sprint on the Champs-Élysées to take the final stage, defeating the Netherlands’ Dylan Groenewegen (Team BikeExchange-Jayco) and Norway’s Alexander Kristoff (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux) to win his second stage in this year’s Tour.

But the real story was Vingegaard, the 25-year-old from a fishing town in northern Denmark who is only the second rider from his nation to win the Tour de France. He rode an almost perfect race, only losing little bits of time to Pogačar on Stage 1, a rainy individual time trial in Copenhagen, Stage 5, a road stage over the cobbles of northern France, and on Stages 7, 8, and 9, when the Slovenian scored time bonuses at the end of each stage.

But Vingegaard was clearly just biding his time for the Alps, content to let Pogačar make big efforts for only a handful of seconds. And when it mattered most–on the steep slopes of the Col du Granon at the end of Stage 11–Pogačar was unable to respond when Vingegaard attacked to win the stage and take the yellow jersey that’s awarded each day to the rider who leads the Tour’s General Classification.

Pogačar vowed to keep fighting, and he kept his word. But Vingegaard responded quickly to each new assault, never faltering as the riders battled intense heat through the Massif Central. In the end it came down the Pyrenees, where Jumbo-Visma and UAE Team Emirates, each depleted due to the loss of key teammates, traded blows in the mountains. Again Vingeggard waited, following each of Pogačar’s accelerations with ease.

He delivered the coup de grace at the end of Stage 18 on the climb to Hautacam, the Tour’s last summit finish. Pulling away from Pogačar with about 4km left to climb, Vingegaard won the stage to put the Tour out of reach before Saturday’s time trial. Not leaving anything to chance, he still finished second in the race against the clock on Stage 20, confirming once and for all that the strongest rider won the 2022 Tour de France.

Pogačar isn’t going home empty-handed: in addition to finishing second overall, the 23-year-old won the white jersey as the Tour’s Best Young Rider and three stages during the Tour’s first week. But more importantly, he learned valuable lessons about how to better gauge his efforts during a Grand Tour. Pogačar remains the best all-around rider in the world, and with a little more tactical nous–and perhaps a bit more humility–he might get even better.

Who Really Won the Tour?

While INEOS-Grenadiers finished the Tour atop the Team’s Classification, Jumbo-Visma was the best team in the 2022 Tour de France.

In addition to winning the yellow jersey, Vingegaard also won the polka dot jersey as the winner of the Tour’s King of the Mountains competition. His teammate, Belgium’s Wout van Aert, won the green jersey as the winner of the Tour’s Points Classification and was also named the Tour’s Most Aggressive Rider. Along the way the team won six stages: three with van Aert, two with Vingegaard, and one with France’s Cristophe Laporte.

Perhaps even more impressive was the manner in which the team defended Vingegaard’s lead in the Pyrenees during the Tour’s third week. The team lost Slovenia’s Primož Roglič and the Netherlands’ Steven Kruijswijk on Stage 15, with Roglič not taking the start and Kruijswijk crashing out on the road to Carcassonne. Two of the team’s strongest climbers, some wondered if this would spell the end of the team’s dominance, but led by van Aert and American Sepp Kuss, the team had all the firepower it needed to defend and then extend Vingegaard’s lead.

Is it the best overall performance by a team in Tour history? It might be–at least in the modern era. In 2012 Team Sky went 1-2 with Britons Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome and took six stage wins. In 1984 Renault-Elf riders finished first- and third-overall (France’s Laurent Fignon and American Greg Lemond) and won an incredible ten stages. Lemond also won the white jersey as the Tour’s Best Young Rider.

But Jumbo-Visma is not a team that cares how it stacks-up against other teams in history–all that matters is that it finally won the Tour de France after several years of near-misses and heartbreak. As fans we’re all in for a treat in the coming years, as Vingegaard and Pogačar are both young and show no signs of letting up any time soon.

Stage 20 Winner - Wout van Aert

Who's Winning The Tour?

Jumbo has absolutely dominated this Tour, with six stage wins from three different riders and taking home three of the four jersey classifications. Much of that is due to van Aert, who was also awarded the race’s “Super Combativity” prize for being the most aggressive rider throughout the race.

A generational talent, van Aert is nearly unmatched in the sport for his versatility; perhaps only Ineos Grenadiers’ Tom Pidcock—reigning World Cyclocross Champion, Olympic MTB Champion, and Alpe d’Huez stage winner at this year’s Tour—has the same breadth of ability. The Belgian has now won nine Tour de France stages in four years, including time trials, field sprints, breakaways, uphill finishes, and mountain stages. He will also win his first green jersey, setting a record for the highest point total in that competition.

Who’s Really Winning the Tour?

Vingegaard, meanwhile, has cemented his rise to the top of the sport with a convincing Tour win that likely unseats Primož Roglič as Jumbo’s top GC rider. While Roglič has a deeper resumé of results, he’s been hit by bad luck in the Tour and at 32 is seven years older than Vingegaard.

At this year’s Tour, Vingegaard never seemed rattled by Pogačar’s aggressive racing to build an early lead, instead coolly waiting for the second half of the race where the long climbs suited his abilities. He withstood every challenge thrown at him, even when isolated in the Pyrenees on Stage 17 and almost crashing on the descent of the Col de Spandelles on Stage 18. As the strongest rider (this Tour, anyway) on the strongest team in the sport, Vingegaard put a decisive stop to Pogačar’s Tour-winning streak and showed that the foreseeable future of the Tour will be a massive fight between two of the sport’s best young racers, and maybe more.

Stage 19 Winner - Christophe Laporte

Who Winning The Tour?

In normal circumstances, Jumbo’s designated sprinter is Wout van Aert, winner of two stages this Tour, and who is mathematically assured to win the green jersey and score the highest points total ever in the competition. But on Stage 19, it was Laporte, who joined Jumbo in the offseason, who got the leadership nod and delivered the results.

An early breakaway of five was caught well before the finish, which soon triggered a dangerous move from three riders with just over 30km to go. So van Aert put in a powerful dig at the front in the final kilometers to help bring the group almost to the catch and then pulled off. Not long after, Laporte sprung his own perfectly timed move out of the pack, crossing the distance to the leaders and catching the others by surprise. On the slight rise to the finish and with leadouts in disarray behind, Laporte had plenty of room to hold off the chase and celebrate crossing the line.

Well, Jumbo. Entering the Tour, the Dutch powerhouse team was by broad consensus the strongest in the race. And even after losing two key riders to injury, they haven’t disappointed. Laporte’s victory is the fifth stage they’ve won this Tour, by three different riders, and they have excellent chances in the two remaining stages as well. They also will win three jerseys in Paris: van Aert’s green, plus Jonas Vingegaard’s yellow, and the polka-dot jersey for best climber, which Vingegaard also now leads after yesterday’s stage win.

The team is riding with huge confidence, as Laporte’s win shows. The 29-year-old Frenchman is a talented sprinter and Classics rider, but in his first year on Jumbo he’s showed a new level, highlighted by today's career-best moment. In eight previous seasons on Cofidis, his only other pro team, Laporte won 21 races, but it took his switch to Jumbo to get his first victories in WorldTour-level races. That’s a point that’s probably not lost on Cofidis, which is working a 14-year (and counting) dry streak since its last Tour stage win.

Stage 18 Winner - Jonas Vingegaard

Who’s Winning the Tour?

Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) won Stage 18, the final summit finish of the 2022 Tour de France, to extend his lead at the top of the Tour’s General Classification. With the help of his Belgian teammate Wout van Aert, Vingegaard dropped Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) 4.4km from the top of the climb to Hautacam. Van Aert pulled-off a few hundred meters later, leaving Vingegaard alone to take the stage–and barring catastrophe, the Tour.

Vingegaard won Stage 18 by 1:04 over Pogačar, extending his GC advantage to 3:26 over the Slovenian. Van Aert, wearing the green jersey as the leader of the Tour’s Points Classification, finished third on the stage, pumping his fist as he crossed the finish line.

Great Britain’s Geraint Thomas (INEOS Grenadiers) finished fourth on the day, losing more time to Vingegaard and Pogačar, but cementing his hold on the Tour’s final podium spot, a whopping 8:00 behind Vingegaard, but more importantly 3:05 ahead France’s David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) who moved up to fourth overall by finishing fifth on Stage 18.

With three days left in the 2022 Tour de France, Vingegaard looks assured of standing on the top step of the podium in Paris. Barring a crash, a mechanical, or a terrible ride in Saturday’s 40km individual time trial, the Dane’s lead is too much for Pogačar to overcome. Pogačar and Thomas look certain to stand next to Vingegaard on the Tour’s final podium. Thomas is one the Tour’s better time trialists, and there’s little chance of Gaudu overtaking him.

By winning the Tour’s final summit finish atop the Hors Categorie climb to Hautacam, Vingegaard also took the lead in the Tour’s King of Mountains competition. He won’t get a chance to wear the polka dot jersey as the leader of the classification, but with only three Category 4 climbs left in the race, he’s assured of taking the prize.

In the end, Stage 18 capped a legendary team performance for Jumbo-Visma, who looks set to go home with the yellow, green, and polka dot jerseys and at least four stage wins. And with two more stages expected to end in sprints and a long time trial on Saturday–all of which suit van Aert–the team’s tally could increase.

Stage 17 Winner - Tadej Pogacar

Two days in the Pyrenees down, one to go: Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) once again held on to the yellow jersey as the overall leader of the 2022 Tour de France after finishing second on Stage 17 in Peyragudes. Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) won the stage, outsprinting Vingegaard to win his third stage of this year’s Tour. Pogačar’s teammate, the United States’ Brendan McNulty, finished third after doing much of the work in the latter parts of the stage.

Pogačar trimmed four seconds from Vingegaard’s lead thanks to the 10-second time bonus he earned for winning the stage. (Vingegaard took six seconds of his own by finishing second.) The Dane now leads the Slovenian by 2:18 on the Tour’s General Classification. Great Britain’s Geraint Thomas (INEOS Grenadiers) lost time to both riders, but remains third overall, 4:56 behind Vingegaard.

Once again Vingegaard and Pogačar proved to be the two best riders in the 2022 Tour de France. Despite winning the stage, the long-range attacks that we expected from Pogačar never materialized. This has been the fastest Tour in history (so far), and given the intense heat the riders have faced and the tenacity with which Pogačar has raced since the Tour started almost three weeks ago, we suspect he’s simply running out of gas he needs to make large gains on Vingegaard.

Even after losing Poland’s Rafa Majka to a thigh injury before the start of the stage, leaving him with only three teammates, Pogačar’s team was the strongest on Stage 17, with McNulty setting a pace that dropped everyone but Vingegaard. With one more day in the Pyrenees with three categorized climbs including two “Beyond” Category ascents, Pogačar will need a similar performance from the American if he’s to have any chance of gaining more time on Vingegaard.

Thomas looks firmly entrenched in third. Despite losing time to Vingegaard and Pogačar on Stage 17, he gained time on everyone behind him. He now sits 2:57 ahead of Colombia’s Nairo Quintana (Arkéa–Samsic), and with a long individual time trial on Saturday, he should have no problems defending his place on the podium.

So tomorrow, all eyes will be–again–on the Tour’s top-2 riders, with one day left for Vingegaard to solidify his lead before the time trial, and one day left for Pogačar to get close enough to give himself a chance of winning a third consecutive Tour de France.

Stage 16 Winner - Hugo Houle

Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) survived the first of three days in the Pyrenees to hold on to the yellow jersey as the overall leader of the 2022 Tour de France. The 25-year-old finished safely in a small group of GC contenders and their teammates in Foix at the end of Stage 16, maintaining his 2:22 advantage over Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), the two-time defending champion. After getting gapped on the final climb of the stage, Great Britain’s Geraint Thomas (INEOS Grenadiers) managed to rejoin the group of favorites on the long road down to the finish. He remains third overall, 2:43 behind Vingegaard on the Tour’s General Classification.

It was a bigger day for Canada and Israel-Premier-Tech, though as Canadian Hugo Houle won the stage and his teammate and compatriot, Michael Woods, finished third. A career domestique who usually spends his time sacrificing his own chances for the sake of other riders, Houle crossed the line pointing to the sky in honor of his brother Pierrik, who was killed by a drunk driver in 2012 while out for a run. Houle’s win is only the second Tour de France stage win for a Canadian in Tour history. Steve Bauer, Houle’s team director, won the nation’s first stage back 1988.

As expected, Pogačar started his assault on Vingegaard’s yellow jersey with a series of attacks on the day’s penultimate climb, the Category 1 Port de Lers. Accelerating multiple times on both the climb and the descent after the summit, the Slovenian was matched each time by Vingegaard, gaining no time on the yellow jersey. By the time the riders reached the day’s final climb, the Category 1 Mur de Péguère, Pogačar seemed happy to let others set the pace, resigned to the fact that Vingegaard wasn’t budging–at least not today.The stage a tactical battle between the Tour’s three best teams as Jumbo-Visma, UAE Team Emirates, and INEOS Grenadiers all sent riders on the attack early in the hopes that their team leaders would have an extra support rider for the long descent from the top of the final climb to the finish in Foix at the end of the stage. The plan worked well as Vingegaard had Belgium’s Wout van Aert (along with American Sepp Kuss, who stayed with Vingegaard over the final climb), Pogačar had American Brendan McNulty, and Thomas had Colombia’s Dani Martinez waiting to help. France’s Romain Bardet (Team DSM) was the day’s biggest loser. The former podium finisher entered the day fourth overall, but lost over 3:36 on the stage to fall to ninth, 6:37 behind Vingegaard. The Tour’s best Frenchman is now David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) who moved up to fifth overall (4:24 behind the leader) with another strong ride. And last but not least, there’s Colombia’s Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic) who was the only rider able to hang with Vingegaard, Pogačar, and Kuss to the top of the Mur de Péguère. Currently fourth at 4:15, a podium finish might be a stretch given the fact that there’s a long individual time trial on Saturday. But a top-5 finish would be a fine result for the 32-year-old–especially if he’s somehow able to combine it with a mountain stage win on one of the next two stages. With Vingegaard and Pogačar locked in at the top of the GC, Quintana might be given a little bit of breathing room to go for the win on one the upcoming summit finishes.

Stage 15 Winner - Jasper Philipsen

Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) survived a long, hot day in the saddle to retain the yellow jersey as the overall leader of the 2022 Tour de France. The 25-year-old finished safely with the leading group at the Stage 15 finish in Carcassonne, but the day also saw the departure of two of his most important teammates. Heading into the second Rest Day, the top-3 riders on the Tour’s General Classification remain unchanged with Vingegaard leading Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) by 2:22 and Great Britain’s Geraint Thomas (INEOS Grenadiers) by 2:43.

Belgium’s Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) won the stage in Carcassonne, outsprinting Belgium’s Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and Denmark’s Mads Pedersen to take the first Tour de France stage win of his career.

Despite defending Vingegaard’s lead for another day and van Aert’s second-place finish, Stage 15 was a day to forget for Jumbo-Visma. It began with the announcement that Slovenia’s Primož Roglič would not be starting the stage. The 32-year-old began the Tour as one of the favorites to win the race overall, but he crashed hard on the cobbled Stage 5, separating his shoulder and losing several minutes to the other GC contenders. With his own GC chances gone, he became a super-domestique on behalf of Vingegaard, and played a large role in helping his Danish teammate take the yellow jersey on Stage 11 in the Alps. But this morning he abandoned the race to begin recovering from the injuries he sustained, a calculated risk with three days in the Pyrenees still to come.

As if to emphasize that gamble, a crash with about 67km to go brought down the Netherlands’ Steven Kruijswijk, who was forced to abandon the race with a suspected broken collarbone. Another top climber for Jumbo-Visma, Kruijswijk was 13th overall at the start of the stage and his good form was likely one of the reasons why the team felt comfortable letting Roglič head home.

And then the unthinkable almost happened: as Kruijswijk was being lifted into an ambulance, another crash brought down Vingegaard and Belgium’s Tiesj Benoot, one of the team’s top all-rounders. The yellow jersey was quickly able to rejoin the peloton, but Benoot struggled behind, obviously hurting from the fall.

The loss of Roglič and Kruijswijk will be felt most in the Pyrenees, leaving the United States’ Sepp Kuss as Vingegaard’s best domestique in the mountains. Yes, Kuss is one of the best climbers in the peloton and is probably better than anyone else’s top mountain domestique, but losing Roglič and Kruijswijk decimates the team’s depth. And if Benoot’s injuries worsen during the Rest Day and he’s unable to start Stage 16, Jumbo-Visma will have only four riders left to protect the yellow jersey. That’s not good–especially with Pogačar clearly recovered from his bad day on Stage 11 and eager to throw everything he’s got at Vingegaard.

Stage 14 Winner - Michael Matthews

Australia’s Michael Matthews (Team BikeExchange-Jayco) took a fantastic stage win, the fourth of his career. Riding with determination after several near-misses so far in this year’s Tour, the 31-year-old joined the day’s big breakaway, initiated the winning move in the stage’s final hour, dropped his two breakaway companions on the tough final climb, and was caught and gapped by Italy’s Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-EasyPost) midway up the ascent. But the Australian kept himself in contention, catching and then passing Bettiol while cresting the summit to win the stage—almost five years to the day after taking his last Tour de France stage victory. Bettiol finished second, and France’s Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) was third.

With the Pyrenees looming, the battle to win the 2022 Tour de France has been reduced to just two contenders, with Pogačar attacking and Vingegaard having no trouble following the Slovenian’s acceleration on the Côte de la Croix Neuve at the end of Stage 14. Behind them, the rest of the Tour’s general classification contenders all lost time.

But while the time gaps between Pogačar-Vingegaard and the other contenders weren’t huge on the finish line in Mende, it’s clear that everyone else is racing for third–a boon to Vingegaard as Pogačar will likely find few allies willing to risk a possible podium place by attacking the yellow jersey in the final week.

Even better for Vingegaard and Jumbo-Visma is the fact that Pogačar and his team continue to make questionable decisions. The Slovenian launched a 200-meter sprint at the end of the stage–for no good reason–and the team put Spain’s Marc Soler in the day’s big breakaway, which might have made sense had the team not already lost two riders to COVID-19. If Pogačar is to win a third Tour de France, he’s going to need all the help he can get from his teammates, and allowing Soler to waste energy on a day like this might be something they later regret.

Stage 13 Winner - Mads Pedersen

Former world champion Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) put on a display of perfectly executed tactics as he won a three-way sprint from the remains of the day’s breakaway, to take victory in Stage 13 of the Tour de France.

Pedersen narrowly missed out on stage win chances back in the Tour’s start in his native Denmark. But he made up for that disappointment on a transitional stage out of the Alps, taking his first-ever Tour victory out of a day-long breakaway. Pedersen specializes in hard days in bad weather, and while that usually means cold, wet conditions like his 2019 World Championship title, he proved equally as capable in withering heat.

Pedersen joined a seven-rider breakaway that finally established itself after 50km of hard racing. With world-class time trialists Filippo Ganna (Ineos-Grenadiers) and Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) in the mix, the pack—led by sprint teams Lotto-Soudal and Alpecin-Deceuninck—kept a tight leash on the gap. American Tour debutants Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar) and Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo) also joined.

But a heavy crash by Lotto sprinter Caleb Ewan at around 75km to go disrupted the chase severely. Ewan, clearly hurt, briefly regained the main field but soon dropped back again, and his team pulled off the front. BikeExchange-Jayco took up the hunt, but without allies they were unable to make much of a dent in the gap given the raw horsepower driving the break. With the break’s survival all but assured, Pedersen attacked on a grinding false flat with 13km to go, dropping everyone but Bahrain-Victorious’s Fred Wright and Hugo Houle of Israel-Premier Tech, then positioned himself perfectly to outsprint them at the finish.

For yellow jersey wearer Jonas Vingegaard, today was a day to stay out of the wind and out of trouble. He had little issue accomplishing that, capably protected by his powerhouse Jumbo-Visma team. The day was not expected to offer difficulties for him and generally didn’t. But a brief split in the peloton with around 40km to go hinted at risks to come in the next two days.

Saturday’s Stage 14 is another lumpy one, through the Massif Centrale with an uphill finish in Mende on the short but steep Cote de Croix Neuve. Sunday’s stage has the risk of crosswinds, and both should be uncomfortably hot. Vingegaard will simply be looking to get through both without mishaps and try to recover as well as he can ahead of the Pyrenees.

Stage 12 Winner - Tom Pidcock

A day after taking the yellow jersey, Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) remained atop the General Classification of the 2022 Tour de France after finishing sixth on Stage 12 atop the legendary climb of Alpe d’Huez. The Dane had little trouble following the attacks of Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), the two-time defending Tour champion who lost the yellow jersey as the Tour’s overall leader on Stage 11. The Slovenian made three hard accelerations on the upper half of the climb, all of which were easily covered by Vingegaard.

Thanks to his efforts, Pogačar moved up to second overall at 2:22, overtaking France’s Romain Bardet (Team DSM) on the final climb to gain a spot on GC. Great Britain’s Geraint Thomas (INEOS Grenadiers) jumped over the Frenchman into third at 2:26. Bardet recovered enough to stay within sight of the podium; he now sits fourth overall at 2:35.

The stage went to Great Britain’s Tom Pidcock (INEOS Grenadiers), the third-youngest rider in this year’s Tour. Winner of the mountain bike race at the Olympic Games in Tokyo last summer, the Briton used his superior descending skills to bridge up to the breakaway earlier in the stage, putting himself in contention for the victory. South Africa’s Louis Meintjes (Intermarché - Wanty - Gobert Matériaux) finished second, and Great Britain’s Chris Froome (Israel-PremierTech), himself a 4-time winner of the Tour, finished third.

We learned two things on Stage 12: Pogačar has recovered from his jour sans on Stage 11 and has no intention of going down without a fight; and Vingegaard and his Jumbo-Visma team are up to the challenge of defending the yellow jersey. Pogačar pulled no punches when attacking on Alpe d’Huez, but Vingegaard immediately responded, riding tempo behind the Slovenian, almost daring him to blow himself up in a fruitless effort to dislodge the yellow jersey.

Pogačar’s final attack came as the riders approached the finish line, a questionable choice considering there were no time bonuses to be gained. Thomas even shook his head as he crossed the line, perhaps also wondering why Pogačar made such an effort to gain nothing on his rivals. Many have suggested that Pogačar’s relentless attacks during the Tour’s first week left him exposed on Stage 11. If true, his sprint at the end of Stage 12 perhaps indicates that he still has a few lessons to learn. Regardless, we’re in for a treat as the Tour continues. Vingegaard’s lead is large, but Pogačar is the most dangerous rider in the peloton. The Tour is far from over.

Stage 11 Winner - Jonas Vingegaard

Vingegaard’s team set the race on its ear midway through the 151.7km stage, when Primož Roglič accelerated out of the group of contenders and blew up the pack on the long, double ascent of the Col du Telegraphe and Col du Galibier. Pogačar followed along with some of the other top riders, but was isolated from his team, which has been reduced by COVID positives. The two favorites traded attacks but neither could get clear of the other, and small groups eventually reformed on the Galibier and on the descent to the final climb.

On the seldom-used Granon, which hasn’t been a Tour climb in 36 years, Vingegaard’s team strength of five against two for Pogačar’s UAE-Team Emirates squad was quickly reduced, but it didn’t seem to bother the Danish rider. After attacks by Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic) and Romain Bardet (DSM), Vingegaard countered and quickly gained a significant gap on Pogačar (who didn’t really try to follow), then pressed his advantage to overtake all other riders on the road and take a convincing stage win.

Who's Really Winning The Tour?

Jumbo brought their full team strength today and was rewarded with the stage win and race lead for Vingegaard. And what a lead: after entering the day :39 down to Pogačar, he’s now 2:16 clear of Bardet in second, and 2:22 ahead of Pogačar. Jumbo has the strongest team in the race and is now well-positioned to defend Vingegaard’s lead.

For Pogačar’s part, the two-time defending Tour champion struggled on the final climb. Under attack and without teammates, he was visibly uncomfortable, rocking back and forth on the bike with his jersey fully unzipped. Whether it was the effort of responding to Jumbo’s aggression, the heat, the lack of teammates due to COVID, or his own as-yet unseen battle with the virus, Pogačar was in distress in a way that he has never been at the Tour or almost any other race. The next few days will tell us a lot about whether today was just a crack on a wickedly hard day, the start of a bigger fade, or rooted in some other cause.

Stage 10 Winner - Magnus Cort

A medium mountain stage that took a circuitous route past, but not over, some of the most feared climbs in the Alps, Stage 10 was always ripe for a breakaway. It took an hour for the move to get established, with repeated attacks, catches, and counterattacks. A first-hour average speed of 48.4 kilometers per hour decimated the field and briefly left yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar without many of his teammates around him.

The eventually successful breakaway had 25 riders from a whopping 18 of the 22 teams in the race. With such broad representation, the chase lacked enthusiasm and the gap grew to seven minutes, then nine after a brief on-road stop due to climate protesters blocking the race route. With Bora-Hansgrohe’s Lennard Kämna in the move, that put Pogačar’s yellow jersey up for grabs. On the final climb, the break splintered under the pressure of repeated attacks and counters. It briefly re-formed on the finishing ramp of the Megeve Altiport runway, where Cort’s bike throw got him the stage win by just centimeters, from BikeExchange-Jayco’s Nick Schultz.

Yellow jersey Pogačar had no real personal difficulty defending his race lead on the long but relatively gentle climb to the Megeve Altiport. But his grip on the top spot in the standings is looking a bit more tenuous. A second teammate, George Bennett, was forced out of the race with a positive COVID diagnosis, and a third, Rafal Majka, is reportedly positive but allowed to stay in the race for now because he has a low viral load. But UAE is already down to six riders, and if Majka—who has been Pogačar’s best teammate in the mountains—gets worse and has to drop out or even simply can't do his usual workload, that will put major pressure on the remaining riders in the team.

At the same time, challengers like Jumbo-Visma and Ineos Grenadiers are still at full strength. And Jumbo did a savvy move in the final kilometers to lift the pace just enough to ensure Pogačar kept yellow over Kämna. That forces UAE to continue defending the race lead. What’s more, Jumbo and Ineos each have two riders high on the overall standings, which presents a possible strategy of sending someone like Primož Roglič up the road to force Pogačar’s team to chase. If that effort isolates Pogačar, he is vulnerable to attacks that he will have to respond to personally. While the two-time defending champion has looked sharp and aggressive in the race’s first 10 days, it’s worth noting that his 39-second lead over his nearest real challenger, Jumbo’s Jonas Vingegaard, is far less than at this point in last year’s Tour, when he had a five-minute advantage.

Stage 9 Winner - Bob Jungels

Who Is Winning The Tour?

Four years ago, Jungels was a rising star in the sport. A talented time trialist, the 25-year-old had shown his abilities in everything from cobbled classics to the Ardennes, capped by his 2018 win of Liege-Bastogne-Liege, one of the most prestigious one-day races in the sport. But his career was instead sidetracked in a slow fade due to what was diagnosed in 2021 as iliac arterial endofibrosis, a narrowing of pelvic arteries that causes pain and power loss during hard exercise. Surgery forced him to miss last year’s Tour and the Olympics, but appears to have fixed the problem.

His stage win here—along with that LBL win the highlight of his career—is his first victory since 2019 outside Luxembourg’s national championships. It also salvages some of what has so far been a rough Tour for his Ag2r team, which has seen yellow jersey contender Ben O’Connor’s GC hopes go up in smoke the past few days with his own health issues, plus the COVID-forced withdrawal of Geoffrey Bouchard yesterday morning.

Five-time Tour de France winner Bernard Hinault, nicknamed “the Badger” for his tenacious, gritty racing style, has a motto for yellow jersey contenders: no gifts. It’s one that Pogačar appears to take to heart. On a day where the current race leader could have simply rolled across the line with his rivals, he was instead aggressive, punching out in the final few hundred meters even though no stage win or time bonuses were on the line.

Whether surprised or just exhausted after a hard week of racing, most of the rest of the diminished group of contenders didn’t immediately respond, save one rider: Jumbo-Visma’s Jonas Vingegaard, who is rapidly emerging as the lone candidate with any credible shot of denying Pogačar a third straight Tour victory. Vingegaard fought hard to claw back to Pogačar’s wheel at the finish line. The rest of the group conceded another three seconds to Pogačar’s steadily growing lead. One rider—Ineos Grenadiers’ Dani Martinez—fell out of contention entirely after being dropped on the final climb. He gave up 16 minutes and dropped 20 places on the overall classification. Another hopeful, Cofidis’ Guillaume Martin, was ruled out at the start with COVID-19, the third rider to be sidelined by the virus once the race started. Monday is a rest day in Morzine, where the race will test every rider. More forced withdrawals are likely.

Stage 8 Winner - Wout van Aert

Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) remained the overall leader of the 2022 Tour de France after finishing third on Stage 8 in Lausanne, Switzerland. Thanks to the 4-second time bonus he earned with his third-place finish, Pogačar extended his lead on the Tour’s General Classification to 39 seconds over Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and 1:14 over Great Britain’s Geraint Thomas (INEOS Grenadiers). Belgium’s Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) outsprinted Australia’s Michael Matthews (Team BikeExchange-Jayco) to win the stage, his second victory in this year’s Tour.

At one point it looked as if Pogačar was about to take his third victory in a row, as the Slovenian covered every surge on the climb to the finish line, his team firmly in control of the race. In effect, his team’s efforts handed the race to van Aert by setting such a high pace that no one could accelerate away before the inevitable small group sprint. With one stage left before the Rest Day, Pogačar is firmly in control of the race, and with a longer, Category 1 climb to the finish line at the end of Stage 9, the 23-year-old could extend his lead some more.

Van Aert was the day’s biggest winner, as the Belgian essentially put the green jersey away with his second stage win. He now leads the Netherlands’ Fabio Jakobsen (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) by 75 points on the Tour’s Points Classification, and few chances for the sprinters remaining in this year’s Tour, should have little trouble defending the jersey all the way to Paris. The Belgian’s large lead also means that he can now focus his energy on supporting Vingegaard’s efforts to try and upset Pogačar at the top of the Tour’s General Classification, a tall order that will take a coordinated team effort to pull off.

Stage 7 Winner - Tadej Pogacar

The Tour’s first true summit finish always leads to a clarification on who’s got the legs and who doesn’t, and the steep gravel ramps of the Super Planche des Belles Filles held true to that rule. When Pogačar’s last teammate, Rafal Majka, swung off the front with just a kilometer to go, the opportunity was ripe for an attack on an isolated yellow jersey. Instead, it was Pogačar himself who jumped, quickly going clear with a handful of challengers including the Jumbo duo of Vingegaard and Primož Roglič and Ineos Grenadiers’ Geraint Thomas and Adam Yates.

As other riders—DSM’s Romain Bardet, David Gaudu of Groupama-FDJ, and Movistar’s Enric Mas—slipped off the front, it was Vingegaard who made the attack in the last 200 meters that finally overhauled lone breakaway survivor Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe). Vingegaard briefly got a gap on Pogačar, but the two-time Tour winner dug deep and put in his own massive acceleration to come past Vingegaard just before the finish line. Roglič led the others across the line, 12 seconds behind.

Just as in 2021, it’s looking like a two-rider race for the overall, and it’s the same pair: Pogačar and Vingegaard. Roglič looked surprisingly strong for a guy who separated his shoulder two days ago, but Vingegaard has been the only rider in the peloton capable of even briefly challenging Pogačar the last year or so.

Pogačar, for his part, seems entirely capable of withstanding that challenge. While his team performed decently today, what’s been clear the first week of the Tour is that Pogačar is not only capable, but confident, riding on his own. His calculated aggression at the finish today speaks to a deep reserve of mental strength; briefly gapped, he could have told himself a few seconds weren't worth the effort. But in hauling Vingegaard back and going past him for the win, he sent an unmistakable message: there are no cracks here. Vingegaard is the only rider within a minute of Pogačar on overall time, and with Roglič well back in 13th place, almost three minutes down, if Jumbo wants to win the Tour it’s going to require Roglič to take a secondary role in service of the team that he normally leads.

Stage 6 Winner - Tadej Pogacar

Pogačar was always going to be the most-marked rider at the Tour, but he seemed entirely untroubled by that focus as he struck out for a stage win and the overall lead. A day-long breakaway by yellow jersey Wout van Aert was caught with 11km to go, but having the race leader out front meant the pace was infernally high: Pogačar’s average speed for the four-and-a-half hour stage was an astonishing 49.4kph: more than 5kph higher than the fastest expected time.

The fatigue from the pace showed in the final kilometers: a touch of wheels on a straight section of road just inside 10km to go brought down a handful of riders and caused a split in the pack that delayed Vlasov. Then, the two final climbs whittled the lead group to under 40 riders, then 30, and finally just 14. Surprisingly, it was Jumbo-Visma’s Primož Roglič—suffering a separated shoulder from a crash yesterday—who started the sprint, but Pogačar quickly countered and no one could match his speed. He’ll enter Friday’s seventh stage as overall leader by four seconds over EF Education First-Easypost's Neilson Powless, and a likely repeat stage winner.

Stage 5 Winner - Simon Clarke

Clarke missed the day’s breakaway but bridged across and held tough over 11 sectors of rough cobbled roads to take a photo-finish sprint victory over Taco van der Hoorn (Intermarché-Wanty). The 35-year-old Australian has been a pro since 2006, with 11 seasons on the WorldTour. And he’s twice won stages of the Vuelta Espańa. But his improbable win here—he’s a climber, not a cobbled Classics specialist—is the jewel in his long career.

Van Aert managed to stay in yellow despite any number of challenges. An early crash left him looking uncharacteristically hesitant on the first sections of cobbles, well back in the pack. But when disaster befell his Jumbo-Visma team in the form of mechanicals and crashes, van Aert sprung into action, putting his formidable TT skills to work pacing teammate Jonas Vingegaard. As a result of his efforts, he managed to stay in yellow, but his lead shrank to 13 seconds.

Who’s Really Winning The Tour?

Two-time defending champion Tadej Pogačar (UAE-Team Emirates) looked as unruffled and at ease as one can be while bouncing over cobbled roads at 50 kilometers an hour. Pogačar was attentive and at the front all day, and usually had at least one or two teammates nearby. He had no crashes and no mechanicals of note. When Trek-Segafredo’s Jasper Stuyven struck out in late pursuit of the breakaway, it was Pogačar—and only Pogačar—who managed to match the pace. The pair never made the catch, but finished 14 seconds clear of the furious, van Aert-led chase. Although Pogačar drops one spot on GC to fourth, he put time into every one of his competitors. The Ineos Grenadiers trio of Geraint Thomas, Dani Martinez, and Adam Yates stemmed most of the damage, as did Bora’s Aleksandr Vlasov. All came home in the van Aert/Vingegaard group close behind Pogačar.

By contrast, Jumbo had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day saved only by van Aert’s heroic pulls. Co-leader Vingegaard had a panicked series of bike changes after a flat and looked to lose serious time until van Aert steadied the chase. Ultimately, he lost just 14 seconds and sits seventh overall, 21 seconds behind Pogaçar. Far less fortunate was teammate Primož Roglič, caught in a senseless crash on the pavement caused by an errant haybale in a roundabout. Roglič quickly dropped off the pace and, despite help from teammates, conceded over two minutes to Pogačar. He’s now way back in 44th overall. Ag2r’s Ben O’Connor had an even worse day, shipping almost three and a half minutes to Pogačar, while Bahrain-Victorious’ Jack Haig dropped out.

Stage 4 Winner - Wout van Aert

It had been a bittersweet overall lead until now for van Aert, who took the yellow jersey on time bonuses, but had finished second on three straight stages. The Belgian superstar left nothing to chance on Stage 4. After a relatively quiet stage, his Jumbo-Visma team laid down a blistering pace leading into the day’s final climb, the short and not-particularly steep Côte du Cap Blanc-Nez, at 10.8km to go. Van Aert's average speed over the final 20km was a time-trial like 52.2kph.

The pack seemed unprepared for such a strong, team-wide move, and a small group briefly went clear with van Aert, teammate Jonas Vingegaard, and Ineos Grenadiers’s Adam Yates. The bulk of the pack came back together shortly over the summit, but van Aert took advantage of the chaos to keep the tempo high, and the expert time-trialist quickly got a gap of almost 30 seconds on a demoralized, disorganized chase. By steadily accruing time bonuses, van Aert has stretched his lead out to 25 seconds over second place. And with the next two stages—Wednesday’s cobbled affair and Thursday’s punchy uphill finish in Longwy—suiting his talents, he could add to both his lead and career stage win totals.

Jumbo’s attack showed the team’s aggression and discipline, as the move was almost perfectly executed and caught not just van Aert's rival sprinters, but many GC hopefuls, by surprise. Although the race came back together before the finish, what was maybe most notable was that Vingegaard was part of the small first group over the climb, while teammate and co-leader Primož Roglič wasn’t.

Maybe Roglič (correctly) bet the race would come back together and it wasn’t a wise use of strength. But after he seemed slightly less fit on climbs than Vingegaard at June’s Criterium du Dauphiné, the fact that he wasn’t present at a crucial moment will do little to settle the debate about which rider is the team’s best shot at yellow. Elsewhere, Ineos was clearly the most watchful of the GC teams, with Yates, Geraint Thomas, and Dani Martinez attentive at the front. There’s a lot of race left in the Tour but we may look back on today’s events as a predictor of what was to come.

Stage 3 Winner - Dylan Groenewegen

Belgium’s Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) remained the new overall leader of the 2022 Tour de France after finishing second on Stage 3 in Sønderborg. The 27-year-old actually extended his lead by earning a 6-second time bonus on the finish line. The Netherland’s Dylan Groenewegen (Team BikeExchange-Jayco) won the stage, his first Tour stage win since 2019.

The Tour now takes a day off to travel back to France, with van Aert leading the Tour’s General Classification by 7 seconds over Belgium’s Yves Lampaert (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) and 14 seconds over Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates). The next three stages suit the Belgian’s talents, so there’s a good chance that he’ll hold the Tour’s yellow jersey for a few more days.

Who’s really winning the Tour?

A relatively peaceful stage was interrupted by a large crash with about 10km to-go, emphasizing how important it is to stay as close to the front as possible at the end of these early stages.

Luckily, most of the Tour’s GC contenders managed to avoid losing time, with the exception of Colombia’s Rigoberto Uran (EF Education-EasyPost), who was held up by a crash for the second day in row and this time was unable to rejoin the leaders. The 35-year-old lost 39 seconds by the finish, a tough blow to his chances of scoring a high finish in Paris.

Stage 2 Winner - Fabio Jakobsen

Belgium’s Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) is the new overall leader of the 2022 Tour de France. The 27-year-old finished on Stage 2 in Nyborg and earned a 6-second time bonus for his efforts, enough to take the yellow jersey from his compatriot Yves Lampaert (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl), who entered the day in yellow after winning Stage 1. Van Aert will start Sunday’s Stage 3 with a 1-second lead over Lampaert, and an 8-second lead over Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates).

But all was not lost for Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl as Dutch sprinter Fabio Jakobsen won the stage. Riding his first Tour de France, the 25-year-old rewarded the faith his team displayed by bringing him to the Tour over Great Britain’s Mark Cavendish, who won four stages last year and remains one win away from becoming the winningest rider in Tour history. (He currently shares the honor with Belgian legend Eddy Merckx.)

A lot of bullets were dodged on Stage 2 as the strong winds that were expected to blow apart the race had little impact, most likely because the Great Belt Bridge was so wide that the peloton could spread itself across the road, offering shelter to everyone who needed it.

There were crashes, though. EF Education-EasyPost’s Rigoberto Urán went down just before the peloton turned onto the Great Belt Bridge, but thanks to a little help from his teammates, the Colombian was able to rejoin the peloton. Lampaert was brought down by a crash as well, but the peloton seemed to slow a bit, perhaps out of deference to the Belgian’s yellow crash.

A larger crash cut-off about two thirds of the peloton as it raced toward the finish line, but it happened inside the final 3km, which meant no one lost time on the Tour’s General Classification. That’s why Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), who finished the stage almost three minutes after Jakobsen, still sits third overall.

So in the end, while the yellow jersey changed hands, the race to win the Tour was unaffected. And considering how crazy the opening stages of the Tour de France can be, that’s a win for everyone.

.css-1t6om3g:before{width:1.75rem;height:1.75rem;margin:0 0.625rem -0.125rem 0;content:'';display:inline-block;-webkit-background-size:1.25rem;background-size:1.25rem;background-color:#F8D811;color:#000;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-position:center;background-position:center;}.loaded .css-1t6om3g:before{background-image:url(/_assets/design-tokens/bicycling/static/images/chevron-design-element.c42d609.svg);} Tour de France

The Fastest Men and Women of the Grand Tours

What Do Riders Eat During the Tour de France?

How Fast Do the Pros Ride in the Tour de France?

Challengers of the 2024 Giro d'Italia and TdF

2024 Tour de France May Start Using Drones

The 2024 Tour de France Can’t Miss Stages

Riders Weigh In on the Tour de France Routes

2024 Tour de France Femmes Can't-Miss Stages

How Much Money Do Top Tour de France Teams Make?

2024 Tour de France/ Tour de France Femmes Routes

How Much Did Tour de France Femmes Riders Earn?

• Nate Ryan ,

• Mary Omatiga ,

Trending Teams

Tour de france 2022 schedule: start time, stages, length, dates, how to watch live stream, route, tv coverage, highlights.

• Mary Omatiga

The 2022 Tour de France begins on Friday, July 1 through Sunday, July 24 across the networks of NBC, USA Network, and Peacock. This year’s cycling event features nine new sites and stages indicated with an asterisk in the schedule below.

RELATED: 2022 Tour de France TV, live stream schedule

Additionally, there will be two individual time trials in this year’s Tour marking the first time since 2017 that the event begins with an individual time trial and the third straight year with one on the penultimate Tour stage. See below to find out more information including how to watch, stages, the complete schedule, and more.

RELATED: 2022 Tour de France standings

2022 Tour de France Key Information

When is the 2022 tour de france what time does coverage start.

The 2022 Tour de France will take place from July 1-July 24. Coverage of stage 1 begins at 9:30 a.m. ET on Peacock and USA Network.

How can I watch the 2022 Tour de France?

Stream all 21 stages of the 2022 Tour de France from start to finish, or watch on-demand on NBC, USA, and Peacock . All NBC and USA coverage also streams on NBCSports.com/live and the NBC Sports app. Click here for the full broadcast schedule .

RELATED: Tour de France Stage 12 yellow jersey ceremony

How long is the Tour de France 2022?

The 2022 Tour de France is 24 days long. There will be one stage contested per day and three rest days. The first rest day is on July 4 (between stages 3 & 4), the second will be on July 11 (between stages 9 & 10), and the final rest day will be on July 18 (between stages 15 & 16).

How many riders are in the Tour?

There will be a total of 176 riders. There will be 22 teams with 8 riders per team.

RELATED: 2022 Tour de France: Cyclists to watch

How many stages is the Tour de France?

There are 21 stages: 6 flat, 7 hilly, 6 mountain stages, and 2 individual time trials.

What is the 2022 Tour de France schedule and route?

Click here to see the full map.

RELATED: 2022 Tour de France route - stage profiles, previews, start, finish times

How many miles is the 2022 Tour de France?

A total of 3,346.5 km (approximately 2,079.4 miles) is the distance expected to be covered in this year’s Tour.

Previous Tour de France Winners

2021 - Tadej Pogacar

2020 - Tadej Pogacar

2019 - Egan Bernal

2018 - Geraint Thomas

2017 - Chris Froome

2016 - Chris Froome

2015 - Chris Froome

2014 - Vincenzo Nibali

2013 - Chris Froome

2012 - Bradley Wiggins

2011 - Cadel Evans

2010 - Andy Schleck

WATCH: All episodes of ‘In the Saddle’

Be sure to follow OlympicTalk for the latest news, storylines, and updates on the 2022 Tour de France!

• Giro d'Italia

Preview - Tour de France 2022 stage 2

The second stage will be the largest of the Tour de France ’s Danish section, with 202 kilometers on the menu serving up the first opportunity for the sprinters. It isn’t a complicated day, mostly pan-flat, however the three fourth category climbs and the intermediate sprint in the middle of the day will see some action.

This is a day where tension will be extremely high, with a fresh peloton of high-level sprinters and their leadouts fighting for the stage win, whils the GC riders will also be on high alert to prevent any time loss.

Create your own team for the Tour de France Stage 2. At least 600 Euro in prizes!

Tour de France: Yves Lampaert wins rainy and dramatic opening time-trial

The day can also be marked by the win. Although in the profile it isn’t clear, the riders will go over the 16.2-kilometer long Grand Belt bridge. It will be as exposed as it can be, a straightforward section where tension will be very high and chaos can emerge if the wind is particularly strong on the day.

Tour de France 2022 Prize Money | How much do Tour de France riders make? €2.282.000 available

As for the finale inside Nyborg it isn’t too complex, with the exit off the bridge seeing the riders head into the town center. The last corner comes with 750 meters to go, and from there on it will be a furious finale where the sprinters will show their strengths.

Cycling UpToDate prediction:

**** Fabio Jakobsen

*** Jasper Philipsen , Wout van Aert

** Dylan Groenewegen , Caleb Ewan , Mads Pedersen

* Peter Sagan , Alexander Kristoff , Alberto Dainese , Danny van Poppel

Read more about:

Place comments.

You are currently seeing only the comments you are notified about, if you want to see all comments from this post, click the button below.

Confirmation

Are you sure you want to report this comment?

UNDER_ARTICLE

Thu 02 May 2024

Fri 03 May 2024

Friday, May 03, 2024 7:47 pm (Paris)

• Tour de France

Tour de France 2022: The Storebæltsbroen, Denmark's bridge of peril, promises dramatic second stage finish

The wind could play nasty tricks as the big finish of the second stage on Saturday comes just after crossing an 18-kilometer suspension bridge over the Baltic Sea.

By  Alexandre Pedro

Time to 4 min.

• Share on Twitter
• Share on Messenger
• Share on Facebook
• Share by email
• Share on Linkedin

The finish line was drawn between a gas station and a famous fast-food chain restaurant, an intriguing choice. While Denmark has other charms to offer, Christian Prudhomme wanted this fast track to Nyborg as the epilogue to the second stage of the Tour de France . "The Danes were thinking of a finish in Odense, 50 kilometers from here. But, from a sporting point of view, it would have lost its interest. We wanted to finish as close as possible to the bridge. Here, we will be less than three kilometers away," the event director said.

The Storebæltsbroen has connected Denmark's two main islands since 1998. On Saturday, July 2, trucks, buses and cars will give way to cyclists for the first time on the third largest suspension bridge in the world, which measures 18 kilometers (11.2 miles). "You have to be a country with a great love of cycling to cut off your main traffic route on a Saturday in July," said Copenhagen Mayor Sophie Haestorp Andersen.

Mountains are not plentiful in the land of King Hamlet, but the wind blows with impressive generosity. The perfect setting for a tragic stage. Indeed, some seeking victory in Paris are at risk of seeing their ambition and hopes fly away over the Baltic Sea. Guttering is the word on everyone's lips. The expected spectacle of this peloton scattered in small clusters battered by the side wind – with some teams more in harmony with the god Aeolus than others – is part of the organizers' master plan to animate the first week, which for too long only amounted to a dull crossing.

The memory of the Dutch polders in 2015

In recent years, Thierry Gouvenou has employed a wind gauge in his head to draw the course of the Tour and diffuse the increasingly less tolerated boredom during the races that are broadcast in full. "It's a strong desire on our part," the technical director of the event said, "We are looking for these gutters, but it's not an exact science." In 2015, the former racer was very eager to see what havoc would be caused by the Normandy stage from Abbeville (Somme) to Le Havre, drawn along the dramatic cliffs of Etretat, but the wind decided to take a day off.

According to the Danish locals, however, the chances of a dead calm are low on Saturday. "Normally, it's windy more than 300 days a year," said 2019 world champion Mads Pedersen, who trained in Roskilde, the stage's starting city. "But if it blows from the north to the south, there we may have a hell of a mess," predicted the Trek-Segafredo rider.

The mere possibility of needing to gutter can make a peloton nervous, in this case well before attacking the Storebæltsbroen, whose 252-meter high pylons are the highest point in the country. "It's a beautiful bridge," said another local of the stage, Michael Morkov, "but I don't see the peloton getting there in a group." The Quick-Step rider expected a "very nervous race" on roads that are exposed. Gouvenou has already predicted the peloton flying in pieces more than 60 kilometers before the finish line. "Even if it only blows between 15 and 20 km/h, it can be an extremely dense day, like in Zeeland in 2015."

In 2015, Thibault Pinot, Nairo Quintana and Romain Bardet experienced a nasty setback with a delay of 1 minute and 28 seconds on Christopher Froome's Team Sky at the maneuver along the Dutch polders, during the second stage. Three weeks later, the Briton won his second Tour with a margin of 1 minute and 12 seconds over Quintana. The Colombian knows all too well exactly where he lost the race.

Could others be fearing the same fate in the land of Hamlet? "Compared to 2015, this will be XXL," Mr. Prudhomme said. Teams that like the wind have a chance to eliminate some of the favorites." Cycling is never so much an individual sport practiced in a team as when it comes to setting up a gutter. It's all about scouting the terrain, moving up the peloton to change pace abruptly when the wind and the topography allow it, and then forming a first fan and first hearing about the damage in the Radio Tour earpiece.

'It's going to be war'

While the Tour requires extreme riding skills and a certain sense of placement, being in a team that is familiar with the Tour remains the best solution to have a good race day. "If you have two large riders as teammates in front of you to catch the wind after 80 kilometers of fighting, normally if you are rubbing [riding in contact with the other riders] at least a little, you have a good chance of doing quite good," explained the climber of Groupama-FDJ, David Gaudu. For example with Jumbo-Visma, Roglic has Van Aert, Laporte and Van Hooydonck to accompany him, so I'm not too worried about him."

What about Tadej Pogacar? Some see guttering as the Kryptonite of the UAE team's superman. In 2020, the Slovenian did drop a little time (1 minute 21) in Lavaur (Tarn), after being trapped by the Ineos team. But on the roads of Occitania, Pogacar was in a bad place because of a crash in front of him just before this part of the race. Since then, he has never been caught out. However, the two-time Tour winner is wary "about the risk of guttering and bad weather" and is also thinking about the cobblestone stage between Lille and Arenberg, four days later. "It will be a question of survival," he said.

This first week is as appetizing as it is frightening for the riders, including for Romain Bardet. "After three or four days, I expect to see some of the big names coming home," the DSM team leader said. "Between the wind, the guttering, the cobblestones, the nerves – I don't really know what to expect. It's going to be war." The first big battle is scheduled for Saturday.

Alexandre Pedro

Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr ; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.

Lecture du Monde en cours sur un autre appareil.

Vous pouvez lire Le Monde sur un seul appareil à la fois

Ce message s’affichera sur l’autre appareil.

Parce qu’une autre personne (ou vous) est en train de lire Le Monde avec ce compte sur un autre appareil.

Vous ne pouvez lire Le Monde que sur un seul appareil à la fois (ordinateur, téléphone ou tablette).

Comment ne plus voir ce message ?

En cliquant sur «  Continuer à lire ici  » et en vous assurant que vous êtes la seule personne à consulter Le Monde avec ce compte.

Que se passera-t-il si vous continuez à lire ici ?

Ce message s’affichera sur l’autre appareil. Ce dernier restera connecté avec ce compte.

Y a-t-il d’autres limites ?

Non. Vous pouvez vous connecter avec votre compte sur autant d’appareils que vous le souhaitez, mais en les utilisant à des moments différents.

Vous ignorez qui est l’autre personne ?

Nous vous conseillons de modifier votre mot de passe .

Lecture restreinte

Votre abonnement n’autorise pas la lecture de cet article

Pour plus d’informations, merci de contacter notre service commercial.

Tour de France 2022: Results

Top 10 Tour de France 2022 1. Jonas Vingegaard 2. Tadej Pogacar + 2.43 3. Geraint Thomas + 7.22 4. David Gaudu + 13.39 5. Aleksandr Vlasov + 15.46 6. Romain Bardet + 19.11 7. Louis Meintjes + 18.44 8. Alexey Lutsenko + 22.56 9. Adam Yates + 24.52 10. Valentin Madouas + 35.59

Please click on the links in underneath scheme for race results and reports.

Tour de France 2022 – results

More about the tour de france, tour de france 2022: philipsen wins on champs-élysées, vingegaard seals gc triumph.

Tour de France 2022: Van Aert wins ITT, Vingegaard seals GC win

Tour de France 2022: Laporte powers to glory, Vingegaard still in yellow

Tour de France 2022: Yellow jersey Vingegaard wins in Hautacam

Tour de France 2022: Pogacar outsprints yellow jersey Vingegaard

Wout van Aert takes stunning solo win in yellow jersey on Tour de France stage 4

Jumbo-Visma rider gets his win after three second places

Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) broke his sequence of near misses on the Tour de France in emphatic fashion when he soloed to victory on stage 4 in Calais after a searing acceleration on the Côte du Cap Blanc-Nez.

When Jumbo-Visma massed on the front of the peloton with 10km remaining, they seemed intent on replicating their startling collective show of force on the opening day of Paris-Nice, but this time it was Van Aert's remarkable individual strength that carried the day.

After Tiesj Benoot had swung off, Van Aert followed through with a rasping acceleration that liberally sprinkled the peloton across the hillside. Only his teammate Jonas Vingegaard and a very alert Adam Yates (Ineos) could initially follow, but they, too, had to relent before the summit.

The yellow jersey very briefly considered waiting for reinforcements, but he didn't hesitate long and quickly stretched his lead out towards 25 seconds over the other side. From there, it was a procession of the striking kind conjured up by Julian Alaphilippe on the road to Epernay three years ago.

While Van Aert cruised serenely towards Calais, the general classification men initially caught out on the final climb, including Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), were scrambling to take their places in a reduced chasing group.

"I was too far behind to follow so I tried to go as fast as possible to the top to see what was the situation," Pogačar said. "It was OK, Van Aert dropped even his teammates, and when I saw that, I was more calm and I didn't stress."

The chasers would close the gap to eight seconds by the finish, though only because Van Aert took time to freewheel across the line and savour his victory, which came after three successive second-place finishes.

Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) beat Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma) in the sprint for second place, though he celebrated vigorously in the mistaken belief that he had won. It was, on reflection, an easy mistake to make. Van Aert, after all, looked to be in a race of his own.

"I think it was quite obvious we were trying something with the team," said Van Aert, who missed the Belgian Championships with a knee injury a week before the Tour got underway.

"Then Nathan [Van Hooydonck] opened up on the climb and Tiesj took over. I felt in the wheel already it was really hard, and then on the radio we heard there was some damage."

That was something of an understatement. Even Van Aert's team leader Primož Roglič was unable to keep pace with the initial part of the onslaught, while riders of the calibre of Pogačar, Daniel Martínez and Geraint Thomas (Ineos) were grappling to get back on terms.

"The goal was to go full to the top and see what happened, but then I came over the top alone and I was a bit in doubt if I should wait for Jonas and I think Yates, the two guys behind me," Van Aert said. "But by going full, I also put Jonas and the others in a good position where they didn't have to ride. So I decided to go alone and then it was 10k of all-out suffering."

In overall standings, Van Aert extended his lead over Yves Lampert (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) to 25 seconds, while Pogačar remains third at 32 seconds. Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), who has designs on contesting yellow against his eternal rival on the cobbles on Wednesday, now has 38 seconds to recoup.

How it unfolded

This was the first Tour de France stage on French roads in 2022, but thoughts remained firmly in Denmark at the start in Dunkirk, where a minute of applause was observed to remember the victims of a mass shooting in Copenhagen on Sunday afternoon. The Danish riders lined out at the head of the peloton for the commemoration, and one of their number was soon off the front of the race.

Magnus Cort (EF Education First-EasyPost) is wearing the king of the mountains jersey thanks to his successful raids on the first road stages in Denmark, and he was on the offensive again here, slipping away in the opening kilometres in the company of Anthony Perez (Cofidis). The duo quickly established a firm advantage, and their buffer would build steadily for the first two hours of racing, reaching a maximum of 7:30 with 90km to go.

By then, Cort had further tightened his grip on the polka dot jersey by leading over the cobbled Côte de Cassel and the Côte de Remilly-Wirquin. Back in the peloton, meanwhile, the early détente was broken after the Cassel, when the race briefly split thanks to the probing of QuickStep-AlphaVinyl and TotalEnergies. Although the crosswind was not strong enough to form lasting echelons, it was a gentle reminder that cobblestones are far from the only running hazard in this corner of the world.

The escapees still had 3:30 in hand by the time they hit the category 4 Côte de Nielles-lès-Bléquin and Côte de Harlettes with 70km to go, where Cort, inevitably, led over the top. Cort, as per the tacit accord, also led the escapees over the day's penultimate climb of the Côte du Ventus with 47km to go, before allowing Perez to attack alone shortly afterwards. This stage was taking place in the background of sponsor Cofidis and he, too, needed something to show for his day off the front.

The peloton, however, had closed to within 1:20 of Perez thanks largely to Alpecin-Deceuninck and Trek-Segafedo, and his lone effort was doomed from the outset. He lasted almost to the base of the day's final climb, where Ineos sensed the imminent danger and positioned their GC men at the front just before Jumbo-Visma took over.

"They did the same thing at Paris-Nice and we had the suspicion they might do the same thing here. I sprinted full gas bottom to the top, but I just ran out of legs over the top," said Yates, who spoke for many of the overall contenders when asked to cast his mind forward to Wednesday's trek across the cobbles. "No," he smiled. "I'm not looking forward to it."

Pogačar struck a similar note. "Tomorrow I need to survive," he said. "It will be a big war."

Results powered by FirstCycling

Thank you for reading 5 articles in the past 30 days*

Join now for unlimited access

Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1

*Read any 5 articles for free in each 30-day period, this automatically resets

After your trial you will be billed £4.99 $7.99 €5.99 per month, cancel anytime. Or sign up for one year for just £49 $79 €59

Try your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1

Get The Leadout Newsletter

The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!

Barry Ryan is Head of Features at Cyclingnews. He has covered professional cycling since 2010, reporting from the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and events from Argentina to Japan. His writing has appeared in The Independent, Procycling and Cycling Plus. He is the author of The Ascent: Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche and the Rise of Irish Cycling’s Golden Generation , published by Gill Books.

La Vuelta Femenina: Evita Muzic beats Demi Vollering to win stage 6 atop La Laguna Negra

La Vuelta Femenina: Demi Vollering crushes competition on first summit finish to win stage 5, takes overall lead

‘I wouldn’t be here if Pogačar was unbeatable’ – Geraint Thomas eyes fresh approach to Giro d’Italia

Most popular, latest on cyclingnews.

‘It won’t be a big surprise’ – Julian Alaphilippe senses chance of first pink jersey at Giro d’Italia

Bouhanni and Arkéa sue Tour of Turkey for €6.9 million over career-altering crash

2-FOR-1 GA TICKETS WITH OUTSIDE+

Don’t miss Thundercat, Fleet Foxes, and more at the Outside Festival.

GET TICKETS

BEST WEEK EVER

Try out unlimited access with 7 days of Outside+ for free.

Start Your Free Trial

Powered by Outside

Tour de France

Tour de france stage 12: the breakaway riders versus the sprinters, gc riders to try to stay out of trouble as long-distance breaks seek to evade recapture..

Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members! >","name":"in-content-cta","type":"link"}}'>Download the app .

Stage 12 — Thursday, July 11 Aurillac to Villeneuve-sur-Lot Distance: 204km (127 miles) Profile: Undulating stage

Stage 12: GC riders to try to stay out of trouble as long-distance breaks seek to evade recapture

Gradually downhill from Aurillac to Villeneuve-sur-Lot, the undulating opener of stage 12 looks designed to enable aggressive, ambitious riders to steal a march on the bunch. 204km in length, several uncategorized hills are packed in early on.

These are followed by the Côte d’Autorie (2.7km at 5.9 percent) and the Côte de Rocamadour (2 kilometers at 5.8 percent), both coming within the first 85km.

From this point on things look more straightforward for the sprinters’ teams with just the category 4 Côte de Montcléra left to scale. However Christian Prudhomme points out that the break held off the bunch on two similar stages to the same finish town in the past.

The view of Tour de France race director Christian Prudhomme: “The aesthetic landscapes of the Cantal and Lot regions won’t distract the baroudeurs (breakaway specialists – ed) from the knowledge that there’s something for them to play for. The terrain here is all hills, with the climb to Rocamadour standing out – it’ll be tackled in the opposite direction to the route taken by the 2022 Tour time trial,” he said.

“The second part of the stage is more suited to the sprinters’ teams that are set on chasing the break down. However, on two previous and similar stages into Villeneuve-sur-Lot, the breakaway managed to hold off its pursuers.”