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Fabio Jakobsen wins his debut Tour de France road stage, Van Aert into yellow

Hugo Houle the top Canadian for the second day in a row

Quick Step-Alpha Vinyl has now won the first two stages of the 109th Tour de France, with Fabio Jakobsen taking a reduced sprint victory in his very first French Grand Tour. Jakobsen’s triumph was a special one for a rider who was terribly injured in the 2020 Tour of Poland. Runner-up Wout Van Aert nicked the yellow jersey from Jakobsen’s teammate Yves Lampaert, who survived a crash near the beginning of the day’s main obstacle, a enormous bridge. For the second consecutive stage, Hugo Houle was the top Canadian.

You can watch the 2022 Tour de France at FloBikes.

The Course

Over the 202.2 km of Saturday’s route, there were three main points of interest: three Cat. 4 climbs in close proximity, the 16.2-kilometer long Grand Belt bridge leading to the finish town of Nyborg, and the finish itself. The winds that the riders might encounter on the Grand Belt bridge worried the peloton.

Pierre Rolland of B&B Hotels won the Critérium du Dauphiné mountains jersey in early June, and he was determined to grab the dots in the Tour de France. He lit out with three others soon after the start in Roskilde. But it would be Dane Magnus Cort taking the single points on offer atop Côte d’Asnæs Indelukke, Côte d’Høve Stræde and Côte de Kårup Strandbakke. The crowds at the peaks were nuts.

And Cort was pretty excited about nabbing the KOM lead at home.

Magnus Cort becomes the first EF Education-Easypost Tour KOM since 2017.

With 100 km to go, only Cort and a Norwegian breakaway chum were left out front, 3:00 ahead of the peloton.

The day’s intermediate sprint was in Kalundborg. The Cort duo was only 45 seconds ahead when it crossed the line. Caleb Ewan was the first rider over the line from the peloton.

All the teams knew that the wind was blowing briskly from left to right on sections of the big bridge.

The last fugitive finally returned to the bunch with 31.5 km to race. Rigo Uran crashed just before the bridge.

The Bridge

The wind was coming from the front-left. Teams wanted to be on the lee side of the peloton. Suddenly the yellow jersey was on the ground with several others.

Lampaert tightens up shoes after crash on the first kilometre of the bridge.

Lampaert made it back. Uran was still fighting to return, and with several teammates he latched on with 8 km remaining.

The Sprint

The peloton came flying off the bridge. A single-rider crash with 3 km to go was quickly followed by an immense, road-blocking wreck with 2.2 km remaining. It would be a greatly reduced peloton sprint.

Mads Pederson took an effective lead-out and powered towards the line. Wout Van Aert went around him on the left and Jakobsen, after trading elbow sweat with Peter Sagan, went around the right to take the win.

Sunday is the last stage in Denmark before the first day off and transfer to France. It’s another one for the sprinters.

2022 Tour de France, Stage 2

1) Fabio Jakobsen (The Netherlands/Quick Step-Alpha Vinyl) 4:34:34
2) Wout Van Aert (Belgium/Jumbo-Visma) s.t.
3) Mads Pederson (Denmark/Trek-Segafredo) s.t.
21) Hugo Houle (Canada/Israel-Premier Tech) s.t
39) Guillaume Boivin (Canada/Israel-Premier Tech) s.t.
108) Antoine Duchesne (Canada/Groupama-FDJ) s.t.
154) Michael Woods (Canada/Israel-Premier Tech) s.t.


2022 Tour de France GC

1) Wout Van Aert (Belgium/Jumbo-Visma) 4:49:50
2) Yves Lampaert (Belgium/Quick Step-Alpha Vinyl) +0:01
3) Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia/UAE-Emirates) +0:08
39) Hugo Houle (Canada/Israel-Premier Tech) +0:48
102) Antoine Duchesne (Canada/Groupama-FDJ) +1:15
125) Guillaume Boivin (Canada/Israel-Premier Tech) +1:27
130) Michael Woods (Canada/Israel-Premier Tech) +1:30