The rider from the Cofidis team took off in the last kilometer to claim the first victory of his career on the Grande Boucle, Sunday, in San Sebastián.
Like the day before on the roads of Bilbao, the Tour de France peloton did not leave the field open to escapees. The favorites played for victory, and it was finally Victor Lafay (Cofidis) who beat his competitors by doing the kilometer, surprising his world just before the sprint was launched, Sunday July 2, between Vitoria-Gasteiz and Saint -Sebastian.
This time, he found the flaw. “Frustrated on arrival” of the first stage, sixth after being the only one to stand up to Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard, Victor Lafay won the first victory of his career in the Tour de France. “I was watching my counter, 500 meters, 400 meters, it was going by, I saw that the tempo was slowing down, I said to myself ‘go back up’says the runner on his arrival, all smiles, at the microphone of France 2. I believed in it until the end, it’s crazy, it’s huge.”
Madness has also taken hold of the ranks of the Cofidis team, victorious for the first time in 15 years on the Tour and the success of Sylvain Chavanel, July 25, 2008. A prestigious victory, in front of all the favorites, which allows Victor Lafay to move up to 4th place overall.
Winner of the first stage, Adam Yates (UAE) provided the essentials by keeping his yellow leader’s jersey, while his teammate Tadej Pogacar once again finished in third position, just behind Wout van Aert (Jumbo- Visma). Enough to glean four additional seconds in the general classification, and eleven seconds over his great rival of the Tour, Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma). David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) and Romain Bardet (DSM) also kept the wheel of the leading group to stay in the nails overall, placed 12th and 15th respectively.
The ascent of the Jaizkibel fatal to the other tricolor headliners
After a start to the race dominated by the breakaway and in particular by Neilson Powless, the Jaizkibel, emblem of the Basque Country, came to dynamite the race. Last seen on the Tour in 1992, the 8.2km climb (at 5.3%) allowed the leading group to pick up the wheel of Neilson Powless and launch the final push to Saint -Sebastian. Some did not keep up, such as Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), fourth in Bilbao, Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) or Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal Quick-Step), all three overtaken by the pace of their competitors.
Others, on the contrary, took the opportunity to explain themselves. Tadej Pogacar (UAE) and Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), the last two winners of the Grande Boucle, took the lead in the race at the top of Jaizkibel. This first battle was won by the Slovenian, who pocketed the 5 points for the best climber classification. The duel between the two men continued, but the Dane, refusing to take over from his opponent, forced the leader of the UAE formation to stop his effort.
Neilson Powless brings smiles back to EF Education-EasyPost
The great architect of this second stage of the Tour de France is neither Tadej Pogacar nor Jonas Vingegaard, but indeed Neilson Powless. After the abandonment of its leader Richard Carapaz, victim of a fall on the first stage with Enric Mas (Movistar), the EF Education-EasyPost formation had to revise its ambitions downwards. But the 36-year-old American did not hear it that way. The one who has “grew up with the Tour de France, seeing the polka dot jersey rolling at the front of the race”admitted on his arrival in Bilbao that the tunic of the best climber could “become a goal”.
On roads that have served him well before, where he won his first professional race in 2021, in the Clasica San Sebastian, Neilson Powless secured his polka dot jersey. Starting in the breakaway of the day alongside Rémi Cavagna (Soudal-Quick Step) and Edvald Boasson Hagen (TotalEnergies), the American resisted the peloton for a long time before being caught on the Jaizkibel, at 19.3 kilometers from the finish. Thanks to his tour de force, the combative of the day now has 11 points in the classification of the best climber.