Greipel claims a chaotic Stage Two

Stage Two was expected to be a relatively quiet stage. (Un)fortunately, the wind gods decided to intervene. Severe crosswinds made this stage chaotic and entertaining too. Rains and cross winds started to play a major role about halfway through the stage.

With the cyclists keeping their heads down to avoid water and wind, Team Sky, BMC, Etixx-Quick Step, Saxo Tink-off and a few others from other teams took advantage to break away from the Peloton which included Rohan Dennis in Yellow (BMC decided to protect Tejay for the long run in the Tour).

Quintana fell further behind, before clawing his way to the group consisting of Nibali, Pinot and Dennis. They were unable to organize themselves as the breakaway pulled away to finish over 1 minute 20 seconds down on the leaders.

Andre Greipel who performed well on the intermediate sprint, latched onto the trial of Mark Cavendish who began to sprint too early to take the win. Peter Sagan and Fabian Cancellara took advantage to finish ahead of the Manxman in second and third behind Greipel. With the time second bonus, Fabian Cancellara powered ahead of Dennis in the overall standings and has the Maillot Jaune. Tomorrow will be his 29 day in the Yellow. Andre Greipel leads the point’s classification with 55 points. Mark Cavendish will no doubt be kicking himself for starting too early, given the limited number of sprint finishes this year’s tour.

The biggest losers were Vincenzo Nibali and Nairo Quintana who are 2 parts of the big 4. They lost well over 80 seconds to other favourites such Van Garderen, Froome and Contador. At least Nibali had a bit of a cushion, owing to his time trial performance (he finished ahead of his main rivals), unlike Quintana who has now lost time over 2 stages. Other big losers in the General Classification were Thibaut Pinot, Jean-Christophe Péraud and Pierre Rolland.

The General Classifications at the end of stage 2 are

The Points Classification after stage 2

Stage 3, as a hilly stage will see aggressive moves by Quintana and Nibali to try and make up some lost time. Nibali might wait for the cobblestones on stage 4. He navigated them expertly in 2014 to extend his lead.