Pogacar and (especially) Vingegaard steal the show, Vauquelin secures monumental Tour de France victory

With Romain Bardet in yellow and Frank van den Broek in green, most of the attention at the start in Cesenatico was on the dsm-firmenich PostNL duo, while other teams also took stock after the opening stage. Visma | Lease a Bike and UAE-Team Emirates were feeling happy, whereas Groupama-FDJ and EF Education-EasyPost began stage 2 with more frustration after failing to achieve their goals in the opening stage.

In yet again scorching conditions, the stage began at 12:35 PM on the Italian coast, where a few attacks ensued immediately after the start signal. Krists Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech) attacked first, with Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) also making his presence known early on, but it was the second or third attempt at a breakaway that really succeeded.

Eleven men were given the green light to leap ahead: Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ), Axel Laurence (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Hugo Houle (Israel-Premier Tech), Nelson Oliveira (Movistar Team), Kévin Vaquelin, Cristian Rodriguez (Arkéa-Samsic), Mike Teunissen (Intermarché-Wanty), Bram Welten (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL), Harold Tejada (Astana Qazaqstan), Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X) and Jordan Jegat (TotalEnergies).

Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla) and Brent Van Moer (Lotto-Dstny) saw the risk and tried to bridge the gap, but they ended up in the well-known "chasse patate" scenario. When they realized they couldn't close the gap, they dropped back to the peloton. There, dsm-firmenich PostNL took control as the lead increased to six minutes and was still increasing.

From that moment on, we entered a kind of status quo, giving the riders plenty of time to enjoy sights like the Imola circuit. However, the peace was disrupted around the intermediate sprint, won by Jonas Abrahamsen, by a crash in the peloton involving significant riders: Matteo Jorgenson, Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Laurens De Plus (INEOS Grenadiers) hit the hot, French asphalt.

This put the Dutch team in a tough spot again. Both Jorgenson (right elbow) and Van Aert (right hip) continued with abrasions and visited the support medical vehicle for treatment, while De Plus had to continue battered and irritated. All three quickly rejoined the peloton.

This incident caused the lead of the breakaway to increase from six to nine minutes, which meant the situation was starting to look much better for the men up front. Welten had already dropped back to provide extra support in the peloton. His former companions reached Bologna, about fifty kilometers from the finish, with a significant lead.

Lotto-Dstny, however, decided to take a chance and increased the pace for their leader Maxim Van Gils, who finished fifth on Saturday and wanted another shot at victory. This effort dropped punchers like Mathieu van der Poel and Alberto Bettiol before the San Luca climb Bologna was tackled.

At 33 kilometers from the finish, we tackled that hill for the first time, so at this point the cards were reshuffled again. Axel Laurence (Alpecin-Deceuninck) drove the pace at the front, while in the peloton, it was remarkably Visma | Lease a Bike that took the lead. Wout van Aert sacrificed himself, which meant green jersey holder Frank van den Broek had to drop back. Others who lost contact with the peloton at this point included Pavel Sivakov, Marc Soler (UAE) and Oscar Onley of dsm-firmenich PostNL.

At the top, the breakaway still had a three-and-a-half-minute lead, as nobody was pushing the pace that hard, meaning the breakaway's chances of victory were becoming increasingly probable. As a result, men started to anticipate, with Oliveira, Abrahamsen and Vauquelin succeeding in pulling away. This trio immediately opened a thirty-second gap on the remaining escapees.

At fifteen kilometers from the finish, we began the two-kilometer-long San Luca climb for the second time, where Vauquelin attacked again. The much heavier Abrahamsen had to maintain his own pace to avoid losing sight of the Frenchman but seemed to be hitting his limit with the summit in sight. Vauquelin crested with a 45-second lead.

Back in the peloton, Visma | Lease a Bike again brought out the sledgehammer, and immediately dropped Geraint Thomas. Adam Yates took over, leaving about ten riders. Just before the summit, Pogacar attacked, prompting a response from his Danish counterpart Vingegaard. They continued together while Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic had to chase.

The two reached the summit with about fifteen seconds over the other contenders, with Pogacar increasing the pressure further on the descent. Evenepoel and Carapaz followed with a gap of fifteen seconds, while the other GC men were almost forty seconds behind.

Meanwhile, Vauquelin completed his solo towards the center of Bologna, achieving by far the biggest victory of his career at just 23 years young.