Great Britain’s Adam Yates (C-L) rides in the pack during the first stage of the 105th edition of the Tour de France cycling race between Noirmoutier-en-l’ile and Fontenay-le Comte, western France, on July 7, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Jeff PACHOUD
Tour de France 2018: How far is Stage 2, what time does it start and how to watch
Here’s everything you need to know about Stage 2 of the 2018 Tour de France.
Great Britain’s Adam Yates (C-L) rides in the pack during the first stage of the 105th edition of the Tour de France cycling race between Noirmoutier-en-l’ile and Fontenay-le Comte, western France, on July 7, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Jeff PACHOUD
The Tour de France whizzed into action with plenty of drama on day one. Chris Froome, who hasn’t had the warmest of welcomes, crashed on the final few kilometres. He landed safely in a grassy patch, but lost valuable seconds on a pretty benign stage.
Fernando Gaviria won on the sprint finish, making history by becoming the first Tour debutant to win on his opening day on the race since Fabian Cancellara claimed the prologue in Liege in 2004.
Tour de France 2018: Stage 2
Distance: 182.5km
Profile: Flat, just one Category 4 climb for about 1km
How to watch and start time
The action will be live on SuperSport 5 from 13:00 and should finish at around 18:00. If you don’t have a Dstv subscription, you can follow Le Tour’s YouTube channel for all the highlights.
What happened on Stage 1
Fernando Gaviria (Quickstep-Floors) sprinted to victory on stage 1 of the Tour de France securing the first yellow jersey of the race. World Champion Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) finished in 2nd place and Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin) was 3rd.
A beautiful sunny day welcomed the start of the 105th edition of Le Tour de France, as the peloton left the Normandy region on a 201km journey, finishing in Fontenay-de-Conte. It was a day for the sprinters and a rare chance for a fast man to pull on the coveted yellow jersey.
From the start, Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka and Quickstep-Floors took control of the race, setting the pace behind a 3-rider breakaway. Jay Thomson, in his debut Tour de France, was in his element leading the main field for the majority of the stage.
As the finale approached, the nerves started to rise and eventually boiled over, with a few crashes and mechanical’s taking place over the final kilometers.
Defending champion, Chris Froome (Team Sky) went down, but so too did a number of his GC rivals, with Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Richie Porte (BMC Racing) and Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) all losing time together with Froome in the end.
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