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Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Lodges) delivered back-to-back wonderful breakaway days on the Tour de France for the house nation, within the Italian Grand Départ no much less, netting the stage 2 victory to Bologna after attacking away solo from his fellow escapees on the well-known San Luca climb with 14km to go.
The 23-year-old Frenchman powered away from Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility), who took second, and Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) after all of them bought into the day’s early break 190km from the end, proving the strongest on the gorgeous 1.9km climb which averages over a ten% gradient.
The San Luca climb introduced the very best of Italian biking to the most important bike race on the planet, with a cacophony of noise welcoming each the day’s early breakaway and the peloton behind who had been preventing for the yellow jersey.
Because the GC struggle unfolded some three minutes down, it was déjà vu from the 2023 version as Tadej Pogačar (UAE Staff Emirates) exploded into life on the second ascent, forcing Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) right into a response.
What the transfer did was reply all of the questions posed within the biking world from April when Vingegaard crashed at Itzulia Basque Nation proper to June 20 when he was introduced on Vimsa’s Tour roster – would he be at his finest?
The reply was a convincing sure, as Vingegaard was the one rider capable of comply with the celebrity Slovenian in his brutal acceleration. Rapidly, different GC hopefuls corresponding to Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) and Primož Roglič (Pink Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) – noticed the 2 true finest GC riders on the planet transfer away.
Working collectively, Pogačar and Vingegaard navigated the descent again all the way down to Emilia-Romagna’s capital to attempt to maximise their positive factors, as these behind struggled to place collectively a concerted chase with UAE and Visma teammates clearly not serving to.
Evenepoel put in a surprising effort on the descent and flat run to the road to catch the highest two finishers from the previous three Excursions de France, with Richard Carapaz (EF Schooling-EasyPost) in his wheel, earlier than sprinting to the road.
With the drama unfolding behind, Vauquelin rode to the end with a 45-second hole on the crest of the climb sufficient to ensure him victory. Workers waited nervously on the end, breakaway companion and teammate Christián Rodríguez celebrated in entrance of TV cameras and Arkéa-B&B Lodges awaited their first-ever Tour de France stage victory after being based in 2005.
As soon as the depend was confirmed, Pogačar was confirmed as the brand new chief of the Tour de France, taking on from Romain Bardet (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) who he dropped on San Luca, taking the yellow jersey for the primary time because the 2022 race when Vingegaard dropped him on the Col du Granon.
“It was actually laborious for me however I’m actually pleased. I had an ideal day trip within the breakaway. I’ve to thank Christian for his function in the way in which he helped me get by way of to win the stage. He put me within the excellent place and I knew I used to be going to have the ability to assault,” stated Vauquelin after taking the most important win of his profession.
“Not till the final second” did he dare to suppose he had it wrapped up “as a result of I used to be consistently asking about time and what I may do.”
For a younger Frenchman, even making his debut on the three-week race was a triumph. A stage win prolonged past his wildest goals, one other French fairytale in as many days on the Italian opener of the Tour de France,
“I wished to participate within the Tour, that was the unique dream,” he stated. “To now win a stage in it, effectively that’s wonderful and for the group as effectively – it simply makes me extremely pleased.”
Extra to return.
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