Wout van Aert took a solo victory in Calais after he failed to win the time trial and bunch sprints in Denmark. He extended his lead in the overall classification on the eve of the cobbled stage to Arenberg.
What happened?
The Belgian rider was first on the line after three second places. Jasper Philipsen won the bunch sprint eight seconds behind the Maillot Jaune and Christophe Laporte rounded out the podium.
The stage details
176 riders took the start of stage 2 in Dunkirk at 13.29. Anthony Perez was the first attacker, from the gun, quickly followed by Magnus Cort. They reached an advantage of 6’39’’ after 25km of racing.
Wout van Aert's strategy
Wout van Aert said: “I didn’t want to take the risk of losing anymore. It was quite obvious that we were trying something with the team. We were in a perfect position with Nathan and Steven. Nathan opened up. We heard through the radio that some damage was made, so I went full gas to see what would happen.
The final climb
Perez was reeled in before the top of Cap Blanc-Nez with 11km as Van Aert passed him after his Jumbo-Visma team sped up in the climb. The Maillot Jaune forged on by himself after Adam Yates and Jonas Vingegaard failed to remain in his slipstream.
Van Aert kept going on a time trial mode till the finish line in Calais to grab one more spectacular stage victory, his seventh at the Tour de France but the first one with the yellow jersey on his shoulder. Another Belgian came second as Jasper Philipsen celebrated as well, obviously not knowing that his compatriot had remained alone ahead.