2023-07-02 17:48:10
Frenchman Victor Lafay won the second stage of the Tour de France in San Sebastian on Sunday, while Briton Adam Yates retained the yellow jersey.
Published on: 02/07/2023 – 17:48Modified on: 02/07/2023 – 17:50
At the end of the second stage of the Tour de France on Sunday July 2, the Frenchman Victor Lafay (Cofidis) won by breaking away from the group of favorites one kilometer from the finish. Britain’s Adam Yates (UAE) retains the yellow jersey.
The 27-year-old cyclist won ahead of two of the biggest stars in the peloton, Belgian Wout Van Aert and Slovenian Tadej Pogacar who, despite their best efforts, failed to catch up with him. Van Aert, favorite for victory with his sprint quality, slammed his handlebars in rage after crossing the finish line.
“I believed in it until the end”
Victor Lafay brings the first victory in the Tour de France to his Cofidis team since Chavanel in 2008, fifteen years ago. “When I made my effort, I wasn’t even thinking about winning, just about making my effort to the maximum. I saw the line, I looked at the counter, 500 meters, 400 meters, and I believed in it until the end. end, it’s a crazy thing. Yesterday (Saturday) I was a little frustrated at the finish, I materialized today from the 2nd stage, it’s great”, he said at the microphone of France 2.
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“For once, I really had a plan in the final, which I don’t necessarily usually have. I knew it was going to attack in the bump at the end, I let it happen. I stayed behind , to arrive with momentum, I saw that it slowed down a bit, I passed”, added the cyclist.
The day before, Lafay had already made a very strong impression by switching to the lead with Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard, the two big favorites of the Tour, in the Pike coast, before finishing sixth in the stage in Bilbao.
The “shot of the kilometer”
Sunday, he did it again to do “the kilometer shot” and get out of a group of around twenty riders in which the main favorites for the general classification remained.
“I was a little worse than yesterday, in addition I had a side point in the middle of the stage, but I really hung on”, said the Lyonnais with the goatee, winner of a stage on the Giro in 2021.
A few minutes earlier, Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard explained themselves in the Jaizkibel, a mythical climb in the Basque Country, crowded with people. Fighting over the bonuses at the top, the two men created a huge gap in a few meters with what remained of the group of favorites.
At the top, shrouded in fog, Pogacar used his superior punch to scrape eight seconds of bonuses ahead of Vingegaard who took five. With 16 km still to go until the finish, Pogacar led the descent ahead of his rival, who did not take over.
The two men did not insist and were quickly taken over by the group from which Victor Lafay would emerge to win the greatest victory of his career.
With AFP
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