The World Champion Gets His Way

The second stage of the French tour, with its finish on a short climb, was raced in anticipation of solos by the classics specialists. The race matched the previous day for tension. Unfortunately Alberto Contador was again caught in a mass crash, and the peloton waited for him again.

 

 

During this wait the breakaway’s lead grew to a critical level, but in the final kilometer the last of them surrendered. The finish was dictated by Tinkoff’s Slovak world champion. First Roman Kreuziger brought him into attacking position; Peter did attack, but read the situation in time — it was still too early to win — and eased off, and Alaphilippe fell for the trick. He apparently thought Peter was spent and nimbly attacked. That was exactly what Peter was waiting for: he latched onto the attacker’s wheel and, with a counterattack, won the finish textbook-style.

 

 

As Peter said after the finish, he didn’t realize all the breakaway riders had been caught, and this win came as a surprise to him. And what a win: along with the stage he also took the yellow jersey. So ended the second big race of this year’s Tour.

 

 

 

 

Featured image: Yuzuru SUNADA/www.yuzurusunada.com

Inside post thumbnail image: Yuzuru SUNADA/www.yuzurusunada.com

 

Special thanks to the Japanese photographer Yuzuru SUNADA for permission to use his works in our publications.

 

 

 

 

Translated from Georgian with the assistance of Claude (Anthropic), reviewed by the Velorbola editors.