PREVIEW | Tour de France 2025 stage 2 - Will we have more Pogacar-Vingegaard GC action on stage 2?

Stage 2 of the Tour will finish in Boulogne-sur-Mer and will have both hills and wind coming into action. We preview a day where Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel are the main favourites; But we should also expect action from Evenepoel, Roglic, Vingegaard and Van Aert!

The second stage of the race should have a sprint finale in Boulogne-sur-Mer, although a few sprinters will definitely be dropped by the steep climbs that antecede it. 209 kilometers in distance, there will be no long or too difficult climbs, but the battles for positioning and expected attacks will see a very fast finale.

With 30 kilometers to go there is a 1.1-kilometer long climb at 9%, and then a climb of similar charactheristics summiting with only 8 kilometers to go. Here we can absolutely see attacks, as we quickly descend, and then have another very explosive 800-meter ascent at 8% that ends with only 4 kilometers to go. This will be dangerous over splits and attacks can succeed as it will be very hard to organize any chase afterwards. The descent into Boulogne-sur-Mer will be very fast and the riders will reach the final climb very quickly.

The final ramp to the line is 1.2 kilometers long at 3.8%. It's start will go almost to 10% meaning we can see attacks to then try and survive to the line... But likely some teams will be able to control the finale and then lead to a brutal uphill sprint.  

It will blow! As if the riders didn't have enough wind today, on stage 2 they will have more of it and dare I say it will be even stronger. Yes that is not ironic, although it will come from the southwest and the stage will largely follow an eastern trajectory. What this means is that we will have some crosswinds sections throughout the day, but headwind inbetween which will calm down the action.

However, that changes with 50 kilometers to go, as the following kilometers will be extremely dangerous and could create splits. Later in the day we have some more headwind on those final hilltops, but this does not apply to the uphill drag to the line.

GC men - Ordinarily, until a few years ago, this would be a finale where you wouldn't really see the GC men. Now there's someone like Tadej Pogacar, who even with an easy finale, could go on to win in a sprint against some very fast men. One thing to keep in mind is the wind and the fight for positioning on the climbs which will be vicious and drain many riders in the peloton. The GC men, naturally, with the filter will eventually be swarmed at the front as they look to avoid losing time. With an uphill sprint (that can cause splits) and bonifications on the line, you can bet they will sprint for a top result even if the victory isn't too viable.

Pogacar is always going to be a top victory contender, and in a sprint you can absolutely also count on Remco Evenepoel (for an attack it's hard as he will be marked) and Jonas Vingegaard who comes into this Tour heavier. But even the second-liners are incredibly strong. Primoz Roglic! I wouldn't give him the win, but he can certainly be up there battling for it with the absolute best. Then you look at names like Santiago Buitrago, Mattias Skjelmose, Kévin Vauquelin, Tobias Johannessen... All proven winners, very explosive, and the depth of such an incredible startlist means that only a top-of-the-line rider can win this stage.

Puncheurs - Between the climbers and the sprinters are the puncheurs, a now-rare breed of rider who rarely gets opportunities at the Tour but this year is an exception. In these I can split it into two categories, the first being those who could more likely win this stage in a sprint which would be the incredibly fast Mathieu van der Poel and Thibau Nys.

But realistically most of these puncheurs are not going to be able to rely on their explosivity to win the stage, but rather a late attack - taking advantage of their lack of GC ambitions to potentially be under the radar and not be covered in a well-timed attack. Ben Healy, Neilson Powless, Quinn Simmons, Romain Grégoire, Julian Alaphilippe, Marc Hirschi, Mauro Schmid... All of these men could win a World Tour stage like this in a sprint or late dash to the line, but at the Tour they will have to rely on the element of surprise. I wouldn't discount men like Jhonatan Narváez and Tim Wellens either if they get the green light in the final minutes of the race.

Sprinters - If it comes down to a sprint then we'll have a few other men to take into consideration. It's not fair to call them sprinters on paper, but in the context, they can be amongst the fast men that can survive these climbs even if ridden hard. Think Wout van Aert, Arnaud de Lie... Incredibly fast sprinters who can absolutely win n uphill sprint against anyone on this field if they are at their very best. But also look towards punchy men like Vincenzo Albanese, Axel Laurance, Sam Watson, Iván García Cortina, Alex Aranburu; or if the finale really is raced conservatively you could even count on someone like yellow jersey Jasper Philipsen, Biniam Girmay, Danny van Poppel, Bryan Coquard or Tobias Lund Andresen.

*** Tadej Pogacar, Mathieu van der Poel
** Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Remco Evenepoel
* Jonas Vingegaard, Santiago Buitrago, Mattias Skjelmose, Kévin Vauquelin, Tobias Johannessen, Thibau Nys, Ben Healy, Romain Grégoire, Quinn Simmons, Jhonatan Narváez, Arnaud De Lie, Vincenzo Albanese, Axel Laurance

Pick: Mathieu van der Poel

How: Reduced bunch sprint.