Special Envoy to Denmark
To discover
The general classification of the Tour de France
Tour de France 2022: discover the map and the route of the next edition
“
It was stressful.
But I think we've had worse.
With the direction of the wind, everyone knew that not much would happen but the peloton was obviously very nervous.
Everyone wanted to be in front
, ”summarizes the Welshman Geraint Thomas.
The stage of all dangers, this Saturday, resulted due to a headwind, in a sprint (won by the Dutchman Fabio Jakobsen, ahead of the Belgian Wout Van Aert, new yellow jersey).
At the end of a nervous, tense end to the day, punctuated by falls.
Read alsoTops / flops of the second stage of the Tour de France: Jakobsen untouchable, the Great Belt did not thrill
The Belgian Yves Lampaert (the yellow jersey on Saturday morning), the Colombian Rigoberto Uran, the Australian Ben O'Connor (who suffers from dermabrasions on the left side, contusions of the left trochanter and a contusion at the insertion of the knee left) and the Luxembourger Bob Jungels (suffering from dermabrasions on the buttocks on the right side) were, in particular, affected.
Pogacar braked
Tadej Pogacar, who crossed the line grimacing, with flat tires, was slowed down by a fall in the last 3 kilometers (which ensures him to be in time with the peloton) but did not fall.
“
I'm happy with how the stage went, and I hope everyone is doing well.
There were a lot of people down, including some of my teammates.
It wasn't a crazy race, but there was still a lot of tension
,” summed up the Slovenian.
Read alsoTour de France: “The fairy tale” by Fabio Jakobsen
Relieved to have passed the race without too much damage (Stefan Küng fell), Philippe Mauduit, sporting director of the Groupama-FDJ team says: "
The design of the race was made to make the race nervous, hypertechnical, with lots of changes of direction, small roads, big roads… everything that makes a peloton extremely nervous.
And then the tension for the last 20 kilometers of the race with this bridge where, as we were all fooled by the weather yesterday (Friday), we had no certainty about what we were recovering from the weather.
»
These are stages that leave traces in the legs of the peloton
Philippe Mauduit, sporting director of the Groupama-FDJ team
And to continue: “
The instruction was to run in front, it was necessary to avoid the risk of falls and to avoid being surprised in the discovered moments when there could potentially have been accelerations and breaks.
There were 5 or 6 falls in the final.
These are stages that leave marks on the peloton's legs, but it was important to negotiate them well.
It could have been a dangerous step…
”
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/S7UVDTX7DREC7DXVCZN6MEKGBY.jpg)
