At last: Team Cofidis wins first Tour de France stage in 15 years

It has been fifteen years since French team Cofidis has won a stage of the Tour de France, but Victor Lafay broke the curse on Sunday, and the 2023 Tour had its first French winner on Day Two. There was plenty of action on the second of three days in the Basque Country of Spain. Adam Yates kept the yellow jersey and his teammate Tadej Pogačar moved into second place. Michael Woods was sixth on Sunday.

Cofidis can finally open that bottle of Champagne that has been sitting on the bus for 15 years

— Race Radio (@TheRaceRadio) July 2, 2023

The Course

Although perhaps not as daunting as the opening stage, Sunday’s fare was still spicy. Five categorized climbs were spread fairly evenly across 209 km, the longest stage of the 110th edition. The key ascent was the last one, Cat. 2 Jaizkibel, a mainstay of the San Sébastián Klasikoa. This 8.1-km, 5.3 percent climb was steeper in its second half and peaked 12.5 km from the finish line in San Sébastián.

We continue our beautiful journey through the Basque Country with the longest stage of #TDF2023: Vitoria-Gasteiz – San Sebastian (208.9 kilometers).

On the menu – five climbs, including Jaizkibel, the iconic ascent of the Clasica San Sebastian, coming in the last 30 kilometers. pic.twitter.com/wPaEL01dnF

— Soudal Quick-Step Pro Cycling Team (@soudalquickstep) July 2, 2023

After crashing heavily with Enric Mas but soldiering on to the finish on Saturday, Richard Carapaz did not start on Sunday. The loss of its main GC man was a real blow to EF Education-Easypost, but its American Neilson Powless was in the KOM polka dots, and he was in the day’s trio of breakaways, bolstering his lead in the mountains competition by going over Col d’Udana and Côte d’Aztiria first. The gap tickled 5:00 before UAE-Emirates began to eat into it.

Powless and Edvald Boasson Hagen offloaded Remi Cavagna before Côte d’Alkiza, where the American again grabbed mountains points.
By the penultimate climb, Cat. 4 Côte de Gurutze, Powless and Boasson Hagen were still 2:00 ahead of the field, Powless in the virtual yellow jersey. The man in the polka dots climbed it alone.

On the way to Jaizkibel, UAE-Emirates was replaced by Jumbo-Visma at the front of the peloton. Powless had 1:30 of his lead left by the time he started the final climb. Mathieu van der Poel was dropped immediately. After a long pull from Jayco-AlUla, UAE-Emirates was at the business end of the peloton again, nabbing Powless with 2.5 km to climb. Rafal Majka shredded the peloton; Woods was still there.

There were bonus seconds at the top of Jaizkibel. The order was Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard and Simon Yates over the peak.

Pogačar and Vingegaard dropped Jaizkibel just ahead of a group of 20. They came together with 12 km remaining. The road flattened with 8 km to ride. Jumbo-Visma ran down an attack from Pello Bilbao. Tom Pidcock attacked with 3 km to go but couldn’t make it stick.

At the red kite Victor Lefay burst out from the group on the left hand side. Wout Van Aert tried to pull him back but ran out of road. Pogačar took more bonus seconds in coming third.

Monday’s climbs are all front loaded on the last day in Spain, and it’s likely to be a day for the sprinters.

2023 Tour de France Stage 2
1) Victor Lafay (France/Cofidis) 4:46:39
2) Wout Van Aert (Belgium/Jumbo-Visma) s.t.
3) Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia/UAE-Emirates) s.t.
6) Michael Woods (Canada/Israel-Premier Tech) s.t.

2023 Tour de France GC
1) Adam Yates (Great Britain/UAE-Emirates) 9:09:18
2) Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia/UAE-Emirates) +0:06
3) Simon Yates (Great Britain/Jayco-AlUla) s.t.
7) Michael Woods (Canada/Israel-Premier Tech) +0:22