Tour de France 2024 | Kevin Vauquelin ensures more French joy with stunning stage win on Tour debut as Pogacar, Vingegaard & Evenepoel gain big on GC rivals

Arkéa - B&B Hotels' Kevin Vauquelin has taken a stage win on his Tour de France debut, ensuring French success for the second straight day at the 2024 edition of the Grand Tour, with the breakaway prevailing on stage 2. In the GC fight, Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel gained big on the rest of the hopefuls.

Eleven riders were successful in their quest to get into the day's breakaway. With the King of the Mountains Jonas Abrahamsen and Astana Qazaqstan Team's Harold Tejada being the best placed in the general classification at 15:13 down, there was no immediate threat to Romain Bardet's Maillot Jaune either. As such, the time gap between the two groups quickly stretched out to around the eight minute mark.

After taking the King of the Mountains points at the early climbs, Abrahamsen also secured himself maximum points at the intermediate sprint, moving into the provisional lead of the Green Jersey classification in the process. When the peloton came up the sprint there was a notable acceleration in the pace and a subsequent rise in stress levels. Sadly, this also took victims with Wout van Aert, Matteo Jorgenson and Laurens De Plus being caught up in a crash.

Although the acceleration brought a number of minutes off the time gap, cutting the breakaway's lead to around six minutes, things calmed down afterwards and the gap grew back. In fact, with 60km to go, as Abrahamsen took another King of the Mountains point, the leaders' advantage was now 9:32 over a very relaxed peloton behind.

At just over 40km to go, Lotto Dstny through Victor Campenaerts took control of the peloton and began to really start to chase the breakaway. At the foot of the first ascent of the San Luca, the time gap was now down to under four minutes. Perhaps sensing the momentum beginning to shift, the attacks quickly started in the lead group on the slopes of the San Luca. Despite the attacks on the first ascent, by the time the break summited the climb, no riders had been able to get themselves free. In the peloton also, there were no attacks, despite Pogacar raising the tension levels by moving to the front to get a bottle, on the first ascent of the San Luca. With 27km to go, the time gap between groups was 3:22.

The attacks continued in the breakaway on the flat between the two ascents of the San Luca. At the foot of the final climb a trio had drawn clear, Nelson Oliveira, Kevin Vauquelin and Jonas Abrahamsen. In the peloton behind the attacks had also begun with Ben Healy, Warren Barguil, Alexey Lutsenko and Odd Christian Eiking getting themselves a gap.

With the peloton back to over four minutes down heading into the final 15km, victory was definitely going the day's breakaway and the leading trio having gained over half a minute at the foot of the San Luca, it was looking good for Oliveira, Vauquelin and Abrahamsen. Once the climbing began, Vauquelin quickly proved himself the strongest of the trio. Although long touted as a future star of French cycling, Vauquelin is actually on Tour de France debut in 2024.

As Adam Yates began to set the pace in the GC group, things exploded with Geraint Thomas, Primoz Roglic and more losing time. Then, with 10.6km to go, Tadej Pogacar made his move, with Jonas Vingegaard straight on the back wheel. As the chase behind stalled, the two dominant forces of the Tour de France in recent years charged clear of the rest of the GC contenders, quickly extending their lead towards the one minute mark as they worked together in tandem.

There was no stopping Kavin Vauquelin however. The 23-year-old Frenchman soloing to a biggest career win and confirming his immense potential on the grandest stage of them all. Although Pogacar and Vingegaard still gained time, Remco Evenepoel and Richard Carapaz counter attacked and were able to limit their losses with a brilliant fight, eventually coming across the line alongside the superstar duo.