The 28-year-old attacked on the final climb of the day to put himself in contention for his first Grand Tour stage win, but the Mitchelton-SCOTT rider couldn’t match the speed of winner Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck – Quick Step) in a three-way sprint for victory.
Climbs Ahead
A seven-rider breakaway was allowed to go clear as they contested the first intermediate check point, and the escapees maintained a three-minutes advantage over the Col de la Colmiane. Despite the gap coming down over the Cold de Turini, they made it over the summit with two-minutes in hand.
However, the race was starting to heat up behind them and as the Col d’Eze approached, the break were swept up. A high tempo set by Team Jumbo-Visma prevented any attacks on the climb, meaning the stage was set for a showdown on the Col des Quatre Chemis.
Several teams battled for position heading into the base of the climb, but it was Alaphilippe who was the first to make a move, attacking clear of the pack with the 13km to go. The Frenchman was then joined by Marc Hirschi (Team Sunweb), with the duo opening up a narrow gap.
Yates Makes His Move
With no movement or organised chase in the bunch, Yates jumped away in pursuit of the leading pair. The Brit quickly bridged across the gap to make it a leading trio as the summit approached, with vital bonus seconds available over the top.
Yates proved to be the fastest in the uphill run and grabbed eight bonus seconds, but attentions quickly turned to the fight for victory. The threesome worked to maintain their lead over the chasing pack on the descent, and it was soon clear the win would come from one of the three.
A strong headwind greeted them as they passed under the flamme rouge and Yates found himself on the front as the peloton closed in. With 200 metres to go, Alaphilippe opened up the sprint, Hirschi and Yates reacted, but the former Milano-San Remo winner proved too quick in the three-way dash for the line.
Adam Yates:
“It was a really hard day out, even the climbs at the beginning were being ridden at a solid pace and you could feel the fatigue as we came onto the climb the first time, you could see there were a lot of people suffering, just like me.
“There were already two up the road and when they went it was still quite early and Jumbo-Visma were riding quite a hard pace anyway. So, I waited until the little steep bit and jumped across and tried to work straight away.
“In the final I got away with the two guys, we started working well towards the end, and yeah, I was never going to win that sprint, was I? So, I think third was the best I was going to come out of that situation.
“It was a block headwind and I ended up on the front, not a good scenario for me there, but like I said, I was probably never going to be winning that sprint anyway, they’re both faster than me. So, I can be happy with third.”
Matt White (Head Sports Director):
“It’s not a normal Tour de France stage two, it was a tough one today and with these special bonus seconds as well there was an added incentive to go after them.
“There was a chance there that if a group could stay away they could take the yellow jersey, and it has, Alaphilippe is in yellow and Adam in second overall.
“Adam did a great ride today when he bridged across to the two leaders on the last climb. I didn’t give them too much chance to stay away just because it was a very, very strong headwind coming into the finish, but they did, just.”
Tour de France Stage 2 – Results:
1. Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck – Quick Step) 4:55:27
2. Marc Hirschi (Team Sunweb) ST
3. Adam Yates (Mitchelton-SCOTT) +0:01
