Pogačar up with the best, Kristoff in green

Alexander Kristoff spent the day in yellow along the 186 km of the 2nd stage of the Tour de France. Starting and finishing in Nice, the riders faced a sequence of climbs to tackle (Col de la Colmiane, Col de Turini, Col d’Eze and Col des Quatres Chemins).

The challenging course did not allow the Norwegian of UAE Team Emirates to defend the race lead (28’25 “from the winner Julian Alaphilippe), but Kristoff will be able to wear the green jersey in the 3rd stage, as he is still the leader of the points classification (64 points, +18 over Peter Sagan).

Alaphilippe (Deceunick-Quick Step) won the stage and took the yellow jersey by outsprinting Marc Hirschi (Sunweb) and Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), with whom he attacked on the last climb of the day.
Tadej Pogačar, in the company of Davide Formolo, crossed the finish line in the first chasing group, arriving at the finish just 2” from the winner. The Slovenian took 8th place on the stage and 5th position in the general classification, at 17″ from Alaphilippe. Former Italian champion Formolo now sits 7th ,also at 17”.

Kristoff: “It was nice to spend the day in yellow: it was a first time for me, maybe it will be the last, so I tried to enjoy every moment of this new experience, even though it was a very demanding stage.
Tomorrow I will be in green, it will be another beautiful day to savour”.

Pogačar: “Today was really a difficult day, in the first hills we set the pace as team on the front. In the final I tried to be on the front and follow some attacks. In the end I wasn’t feeling super good on the last climb so I stayed in the bunch for the sprint and got a top-10 so it was a good day all things considered.”

 
Results stage 2:
1. Julian Alaphilippe (Deceunick-Quick Step) 4:55:27
2. Marc Hirschi (Sunweb) s.t.
3. Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) s.t.
8. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) @ 2″

General classification after the 2nd stage:
1. Julian Alaphilippe (Deceunick-Quick Step) 8:41:35
2. Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) @ 4 ”
3. Marc Hirschi (Sunweb) @ 7 ”
5. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) @ 17″