3 hours ago
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Mathieu van der Poel won stage two of the 2025 Tour de France into Boulogne-sur-Mer for Alpecin-Deceuninck and claimed the race lead, after a quick succession of short climbs inside the final kilometres exploded the peloton on the approach to the Channel port.
The Dutch rider thwarted Tadej Pogacar’s attempt to take the 100th win of his career, outsprinting the defending Tour champion on the steady final climb of the Boulevard Auguste Mariette.
His teammate Jasper Philipsen, wearing the yellow jersey after winning stage one to Lille on Saturday, was distanced in the closing kilometres and Van der Poel took the race lead from the Belgian sprinter.
Pogacar’s main rival, Jonas Vingegaard of Visma Lease-a-bike, followed the Slovenian across the finish line, with the Olympic champion, Remco Evenepoel, distanced on Saturday’s stage, showing greater vigilance to finish in the front group.
But for the hapless French rider Benjamin Thomas, who crashed on Saturday’s stage while fighting his compatriot Matteo Vercher for a single point in the mountains classification on Mont Cassel, Sunday morning dawned with the news that his bike, along with 10 others from the Cofidis team worth about €140,000 (£120,000), had been stolen from their vehicles overnight.
Monday is likely to be another sprinters’ stage, with a third tricky day through the Nord and towards the Channel, this time to Dunkirk, in which the cobbles of Mont Cassel and the crosswinds off the sea will again play their part.
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Full report to follow
