Victor Lafay ended a 15-year drought for Cofidis by winning stage 2 of the Tour de France in San Sebastian with a perfectly-timed attack beneath the flamme rouge at the end of a thunderous final hour of racing.
A frustrated Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) banged his handlebars after winning the sprint for second place from the elite group that formed over the Jaizkibel, while Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) helped himself to the time bonus for third having previously snaffled eight seconds after overpowering Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) atop that final climb.
Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) finished safely in the 25-strong front group to retain the yellow jersey, but his teammate Pogačar was the big winner among the overall contenders on Sunday. He moves up to second in the overall standings of the Tour de France, six seconds off Adam Yates, thanks to the 12 seconds of time bonuses he picked up across the day.
The final ascent of the Jaizkibel, so familiar from the Clàsica San Sebastian, was the site for the latest instalment of Pogačar and Vingegaard's never-ending duel as they jousted for the bonus seconds at the summit with 16km to go.
Pogačar took the sprint after the pair cruised clear of the field, and they began the descent with a 15-second lead over the chasers. Mindful that his teammate Wout van Aert was the favourite for stage victory, however, Vingegaard declined Pogačar's entreaties to ride, and so a 25-strong group would contest the stage honours.
Ben O'Connor (AG2R Citroën) and Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) were the notable absentees from the front group, conceding 58 seconds and 2:25, respectively, by the day's end.
Wilco Kelderman worked to tee up Van Aert on the run-in, but the Belgian did some of the key marking himself, tracking late moves from Tom Pidcock (Ineos) and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek).
Van Aert opted to hold his fire, however, when Lafay took a flyer with a kilometre to go. The Frenchman had already shown his form by tracking Pogačar and Vingegaard on the Côte de Pike on stage 1, and he should not have been underestimated here as he pulled off a pitch-perfect coup du kilomètre to claim Cofidis' first Tour stage win since Sylvain Chavanel back in 2008.
"When I made my effort, I wasn't thinking about winning or not, I was just focused on doing my maximum effort," Lafay said. "I saw the line, I saw the countdown – 500m, 400m – and I saw my watts were dropping a little bit. I said to myself, 'Allez, allez, allez' and I believed until the finish."
Lafay was already a stylish stage winner on the Giro d'Italia two years ago in Guardia Sanframondi, but he had appeared to reach a new level in the spring of 2023. That form line continued upward on the opening day of the Tour and confirmation arrived when he seized the moment in San Sebastian.
"Yesterday, I was a victim of the marking between the favourites. Today I profited from it," Lafay said. "I saw that Jumbo had worked a lot in the final and I said to myself that it would be a good idea to have a go with a kilometre to go. Wout wasn't going to ride himself then."
UAE Team Emirates spent much of the day setting the tempo at the head of the bunch, partly in defence of Yates' yellow jersey but also intending to set up Pogačar's onslaught on the Jaizkibel. Yates duly led out the Slovenian on the climb, and Pogačar's haul of bonus seconds lifted him to second overall, six seconds off the yellow jersey. Simon Yates (Jayco-Alula) is third on the same time, while Vingegaard is sixth at 17 seconds.
"In the end, we set up Tadej for the bonus seconds and in the final, I think we did a good job. It all depended on the bonus seconds and the final - if Tadej won the bonus and the stage, he would have beaten me, but we kept [the yellow jersey] with the team," said Adam Yates.
How it unfolded
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Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) extended his lead in the mountains classification but was caught on Jaizkibel(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Simon Yates pushes the pace on Jaizkibel(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Tadej Pogacar marked by Jonas Vingegaard on an attack at Jaizkibel(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Pogacar couldn't get separation but won the time bonus sprint(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Pello Bilbao then launched a bid for victory(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Simon Yates puts the hurt on the Jaizkibel(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Tom Pidcock attacks in the finale(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Adam Yates working for team leader Tadej Pogacar(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
After losing Richard Carapaz to the injuries he sustained in his crash on the opening stage, EF Education-EasyPost were determined to reignite their Tour, and Neilson Powless immediately stepped up to the plate. The American had taken the polka dot jersey Saturday and he would spend the bulk of stage 2 of the front in his successful bid to defend it after attacking early on with Rémi Cavagna (Soudal-QuickStep) and Edvald Boasson Hagen (TotalEnergies).
On the longest day of the Tour, the trio established a maximum lead just shy of five minutes as they wound their way from Vitoria to San Sebastian, acclaimed on every hillside by masses upon masses of Basque fans.
Powless, as expected, led the break over the climbs of Udana, Aztiria, Alkiza and Gurutze, and he would be the last man standing come the mighty Jaizkibel, an ascent so familiar to him after his 2021 triumph at the Clàsica de San Sébastian.
UAE Team Emirates – with Mikkel Bjerg especially active – had dictated terms in the bunch all day, setting a pace that saw a number of sprinters, Mark Cavendish among them, distanced with 80km to go.
On the lower slopes of the Jaizkibel, it was Jumbo-Visma who took up the reins for Vingegaard, cutting Powless's lead to a few seconds and whittling down the bunch still further, but the race took on a new guise when Rafał Majka hit the front for Pogačar some 3km from the summit.
Powless was caught soon afterwards – "All I could do was ride threshold in Jaizkibel. I needed to go at least one minute faster to hold off the bunch," Powless said – and only 25 or so riders remained in contact on the approach to the summit.
Yates upped the pace further in the last kilometre before Pogačar accelerated, bringing Vingegaard with him towards the mist-shrouded summit. The Slovenian won the sprint at the top and, despite the slippery roads, he initially pressed on over the other side, flicking his elbow in search of a turn from Vingegaard. The Dane opted against it and the move petered out, but the duel still has 19 more stages to run.
Barry Ryan is Head of Features at Cyclingnews. He has covered professional cycling since 2010, reporting from the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and events from Argentina to Japan. His writing has appeared in The Independent, Procycling and Cycling Plus. He is the author of The Ascent: Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche and the Rise of Irish Cycling’s Golden Generation, published by Gill Books.
