UAE Team Emirates’ Ben Swift seventh in bunch sprint

UAE Team Emirates’ Ben Swift came seventh in the second wet stage of the Tour de France after a bunch sprint. UAE Team Emirates’ Matteo Bono and John Darwin Atapuma crashed following a rider pile up 25km from the finish line after surface water tripped up around 20 riders in the peloton. The bunch sprint was won by an emotional Marcel Kittel (Quick-Step Floors) whilst Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) retained the yellow jersey for a second day.

Ben Swift speaking about today’s stage said: “It was a messy, messy sprint. I think a lot of people were quite nervous after the big crash. I just really tried to ride really easy and I actually thought, I’m a bit too far back here when I saw we had 15km to go and I was at the back of the peloton bubble. So, I tried to move up in the peloton and in the last 3km I arrived in a good position but it was very messy, there were a lot of people everywhere and I found a nice path through but I was still a little far back so I had to go quite early with maybe 5 – 600m to go. I’m not so disappointed because sprinting isn’t my speciality like it is for Kittel, Greipel and Cavendish so I think we will keep on trying. There a lot of opportunities this race, so we’ll see!”

Stage Three will see riders tackle five categorised climbs over the 212.5km route complete with uphill finish, as the Tour lands on French soil via Luxembourg. The biggest test will pit riders against the Côte des Religieuses. The 1.6km final stretch has a maximum 11% gradient and will be a target for GC riders looking to gain seconds on their closest rivals.

Stage 2 result: 

1 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Quick-Step Floors 4:37:06

2 Arnaud Demare (Fra) FDJ s.t.

3 André Greipel (Ger) Lotto Soudal s.t.

7 Ben Swift (GBr) UAE Team Emirates s.t. 

General Classification after stage 2

1 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky 4:53:10

2 Stefan Küng (Swi) BMC Racing Team + 5”

3 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Quick-Step Floors + 6”

39 Diego Ulissi (Ita) UAE Team Emirates + 43”

102 Louis Meintjes (RSA) UAE Team Emirates + 1’12”