Update
The break without Trentin continues and they have a lead of 1’44, 166 km before the finish.
Robert Gesink, another rider who crashed yesterday, is away from the back of the field. Gaudu is out there somewhere too.
Sagan against Trentin and it’s the Italian who does it with a very strong sprint. He then has to stop to change the rear wheel.
Let’s go … upcoming sprint. Can Sagan do it?
A QuickStep driver is on the wrong side of the barrier on the main road. This is not good.
The peloton doesn’t end the break as we see more of Gaudu behind the team car. The pile for a second relaxes with the sprint in about 3 km.
It’s Sunweb and the UAE chasing when we see Gaudu is already 50 seconds back.
Who is on break?
Peter Sagan and Lukas Pöstleberger (Bora-Hansgrohe), Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R-La Mondiale), Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo), Anthony Perez (Cofidis), Michael Gogl (NTT) and Matteo Trentino (CCC). You have 18 seconds with 176 km to go.
This Sagan / Trentin group has 14 seconds and is a really strong group. Tony Martin is marking movement right now when we see more footage of Gaudu. He tries to straighten his back, but he can’t even do that. At the moment he’s behind the team car and it’s just heartbreaking.
The young French climber is walking backwards and in real pain. He fell yesterday and has a problem with his back and it looks like he can’t get the pedals off. The FDJ car is coming to speak to him and see it … it will only go one way.
I can only think Jumbo Visma wants the stage, but at the end of the bunch, Gaudu falls and he’s already in trouble.
I think even Sagan made the break up and made it into the Trentin group, and Jumbo Visma is now hunting.
Bora chases things because it looks like they’re trying to get the middle sprint points. However, Trentin attacks.
And we race and already have attacks with five drivers who can handle it. Cofidis and AG2R are driving things forward.
We’re about to ride but Prudhomme is waiting for Van Garderen to come back from an early bike change. The American has to stop again, there is another problem with his bike.
Tony Martin is now at the forefront and smiles even after yesterday’s clever intervention when it came to neutralizing the stage. Like the rest of the field, he will be hoping for a less tense stage today, although it will be difficult given the terrain.
Sivakov is right at the back of the pack and makes it easier for himself to race. He will certainly have a day off today as he tries to recover from yesterday’s two crashes. He wears bandages on both sides.
At the beginning of the 2nd stage he is still rolling through the mixed zone. The yellow jersey is chatting to the drivers around it and clearly enjoying the experience. Today’s intermediate sprint comes after only 10 miles and it could be the only chance for a number of sprinters to score points. Could we see that matter or will the gun break go?
???????? # TDF2020 Good afternoon from a sunny Nice! ???? pic.twitter.com/u3925I0jBxAugust 30, 2020
Still rolling through the mixed zone so an opportunity to show you these comments from Bradley Wiggins who believes that drivers who don’t want to take risks in bad conditions should retire after yesterday which is weird because he didn’t quit Giro d’Italia immediately after 2013 and the conditions yesterday were much worse. Anyway, the story is here.
Kristoff went all-yellow today but he doesn’t have a yellow bike so it’s not total overkill. A little bit on Kristoff, there seems to be some sympathy from some commentators, who suggest he’s a brave underdog who may not have had great results. Totally tosh. He won four stages in the Tour, he won Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders and he won Gent-Wevelgem last year. He ‘s awesome.
The drivers are now rolling out and the conditions are nice. Sagan is green, of course, because Kristoff wears yellow. The neutralized zone is 10km long so it’s a decent little warm-up for the peloton this afternoon.
A number of teams – including Ineos – warmed up on the reels with their bus. It’s a clear indication that we got to see some really intense races from the start. I’m not sure we’ll see much from Sivakov, who will be hoping to recover as much as possible after his two falls on the first stage. He was really in the wars yesterday, but he fought his way through and finished the stage. Fair play.
Who do you think will win?
It’s an open stage to be honest, but who do you think is going to win? You can Let me know on Twitter and we will publish your selection here in our live coverage.
Valls, Degenkolb and Gilbert are the three non-starters after yesterday’s crashes after the stage had to be neutralized by the increasingly popular Tony Martin. Read Stephen Farrand’s comprehensive story here for a full review of the falls and their injuries. The conditions were terrible and we’ll talk more about them later as the stage progresses. Fortunately we have a beautiful blue sky over us today and the drivers should stay dry. Sun is out, masks out. We are about ten minutes away from the race on the second stage of the 2020 Tour de France.
# TDF2020 Sign Up ✍️✅ Almost Time for Stage 2! pic.twitter.com/mqTpYtqTkLAugust 30, 2020
By the way, don’t forget to bookmark this page for all of your Tour de France needs. It offers everything from news, results, videos, interviews, features, photos and blogs. If you don’t bookmark this page and make it your homepage for the next three weeks, you are a terrible person. I don’t want to sound harsh, but that’s the way it is.
???? Level 2 / Level 2 ???????? @ VilledeNice???? @VilledeNice ⠀???? 186 km⏰ 13:00 CET> 18:08 CET ⠀⛰️ 2×1️⃣c, 1×2️⃣c???? km16 # TDF2020 #NiceCyclingParadise #TDFunited pic.twitter.com/jbwDO0OpwoAugust 30, 2020
The stage is 186 km long, but it’s the climbs, not the distance, that do the damage today – especially after so many riders fell yesterday. Three have already gone home and we hear that Wout Poels starts with a broken rib.
These climbs are known to anyone who is a fan of the early Paris-Nice stage race, especially the picturesque Col d’Eze, which is an institution for the “Race to the Sun”.
Consider this a bold statement from the organizer, ASO, as two Category 1 mountains can be seen on the second day of the race – the Col de la Colmiane at 63.5 km and the Col de Turini at 99.5 km. Both were tackled on the 1973 tour, while the 1975 Colmiane was en route to Pra-Loup, where Eddy Merckx wore his last yellow jersey.
The Col d’Èze is a punchy stretch from the east end of Nice and the peloton will climb it in the last quarter of the stage, then loop back and climb the first half of the climb before turning off at the bonus sprint at Col des Quatre Chemins 9 km before the goal. While the two big climbs will split the field, the real action will come with the punchy finale and bonus sprint that give a rider like Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) a chance.
Alexander Kristoff will start in yellow for the first time in his career after taking an impressive win on the first stage. It will be even more impressive if the Norwegian can hold out today because the ASO shot their first mountain salvo into the race on the second stage. It’s day for the GC drivers and probably a reduced sprint.
We’re about 30 minutes from the official stage start but the weather has improved compared to yesterday’s heavy rain, which is something for the riders after the terrible conditions they endured 24 hours ago.
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the second stage of the Tour de France. We start and finish in Nice again, but today we’re going to the mountains for a day to test the GC competitors.
