Photo gallery: 2017 Tour de France, Stage 2
Marcel Kittel (Quick-Step Floors) took victory on Stage 2 of the Tour de France in Liège, Belgium. The German sprinter was quickest to the line, besting Arnaud Démare (FDJ) and André Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) in a hectic bunch gallop.
The peloton departed Düsseldorf, Germany for a 203km trek south to Liège, Belgium. On paper it looked to be a sprinter’s stage, primarily flat, and like the stage 1 time trial on Saturday, the peloton was met with heavy rain throughout the day.
The four riders had their work cut out, pushing headwinds and heavy rain for the entirety of their journey. The peloton was slow to react, and by kilometer 15, the gap was over three minutes.
With a kilometer remaining, Phinney and Offrendo were swept up, and it was anyone’s race.
Kittel’s leadout was far from perfect, and he was forced to come from far back to blast past Démare and Greipel for the win. Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) retained yellow after the stage, with Kittel taking the green as points classification leader.
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- The start area in Düsseldorf was filled with fans and race vehicles.
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- The UCI inspectors carrying out iPad-based tests at this year’s Tour de France.
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- Zdenek Stybar and his son at the start of the stage
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- Italian national champion Fabio Aru (Astana) at sign in, in Düsseldorf.
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- German national champion Marcu Burghardt (Bora-Hansgrohe) enjoyed every minute of the Grand Départ in Düsseldorf.
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- Maillot jaune Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) rolled to the start line in Düsseldorf.
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- World champion Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) had a chat before the start in Düsseldorf.
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- Stage 2 marked the first time Oliver Naesen (Ag2r La Mondiale) would wear his Belgian national champion’s jersey in Belgium.
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- The saddle and transponder of three-time Tour champion Chris Froome (Team Sky).
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- All kinds of bikes, and riders, were on display at the start area in Düsseldorf.
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- The iconic image of Eddy Merckx, taken by Belgian master photographer Stephan Vanfleteren, looked down on the start area, promoting a bicycle expo in Düsseldorf.
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- The breakaway quickly opened a gap of three minutes, though it never got much larger.
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- Domestiques from sprint teams Lotto-Soudal, Quick-Step Floors, and Dimension Data rode the front, flanked by members from Team Sky.
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- The flag says it all: Headwind.
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- Stage 2 saw a crash at the front of the field with 30 kilometers to go. A rider sitting fourth wheel lost grip through a wet roundabout and amongst others took down Chris Froome (Team Sky), Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) and Richie Porte (BMC Racing), the first-, second-, and fourth-place finishers of last year’s Tour. Photo by Chris Auld
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- Yoann Offredo (Wanty Gobert) took a musette bag from a soigneur as the four-man breakaway rolled through the feed zone.
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- Today’s victory sees Marcel Kittel move into the green jersey of points classification leader. It’s a competiton he finished second in last year, but one he sees little chance of winning. “Of course I want to fight for it,” Kittel said. “I was also in the points today in the intermediate sprint. I will continue that in the next days. But when you look to the last five-six Tour de Frances, every time when Peter Sagan won, then there was always a sprinter who won four stages and I’ve not even a small chance to go for the green jersey. “I don’t hope that it happens of course, but the only way you can win the jersey I think is by Peter Sagan getting sick or having to leave the race because of another reason. Otherwise the chance is not there for a pure sprinter.”
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- Michael Matthews (Sunweb) finished ninth on the stage.
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- The cockpit of three-time Tour champion Chris Froome (Team Sky) with a minor damage from his crash.
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- Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) finished fourth in the sprint.
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- Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal) rode in support of teammate Andre Greipel, who finished third.
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- No change in GC and Thomas heads to stage 3 in yellow
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- Taylor Phinney heads into stage 3 in the KOM jersey. He said after the stage, “This was the plan this morning, to go out and get the KOM jersey.” Phinney also said, “Sprinting up these little climbs to try to get the polka dot jersey, I was just flashing back to all these times that I’ve seen people wearing this jersey. I never ever thought I’d wear this jersey. Climbing isn’t exactly my specialty, but I’ll take advantage of any opportunities I have.” He told NBC. “Man everyone wants to know how long,” Phinney said to NBC. “Just live in the moment man. This was a wild day. I’m still trying to figure out what happened.”
