The first road stage of the Tour de France sees the riders confront the first sprint finish of the race. Join The Roar’s live coverage as the sprinters get their chance to shine on the sprint finish into Liege from 10pm AEST.
Dusseldorf hosted the opening stage yesterday, and will once again host the start of Stage 2 of the race, with the riders circling around the German city before heading south towards the eventual stage finish in Liege, some 204 kilometres later.
It will be a frantic opening to the race, with the first King of the Mountains points up for grabs only 6.5 kilometres into the stage.
I expect the Pro-Continental teams, including Cofidis and Wanty Groupe to attempt to take out this opening Mountain sprint, in the effort to have one of their riders on the podium at the end of the day.
The Cote de Grafenberg is only a category four climb, and averages just under 5 percent for 1.4 kilometres.
It is then a fairly uncomplicated run for the majority of the stage, with the only obstacles being the intermediate sprint after 83 kilometres Monchengladbach and the final categorised climb of the day, the Cote d’Olne, which is completed just outside 20 kilometres to go..
The category four climb is 1.3 kilometres at 4.7 percent.
The final five kilometres of the stage look fairly straight for the peloton to deal with, so the sprinters teams should have no major problems in time their appearance at the front for the main sprinters.
However, with it being the first sprint of the Tour, it will be a messy sprint for sure.
Marcel Kittel will be the man to beat, but can Peter Sagan, Mark Cavendish and Andre Griepel upstage the Quick Step Floors rider and take the win?
Join The Roar’s live coverage of Stage 2 of the Tour de France from 10pm AEST.
Brendon Vella
Roar Guru
Thank you for joining the Roar's live coverage of Stage 2 of the Tour de France. We will be back tomorrow from 10 pm AEST.
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Roar Guru
TOP 5 - GENERAL CLASSIFICATION 1. THOMAS 2. KUENG +00' 05'' 3. KITTEL +00' 06'' 4. KIRYIENKA +00' 07'' 5. TRENTIN +00' 10''
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Roar Guru
TOP 5 - POINTS CLASSIFICATION 1. KITTEL 63 pts 2. DEMARE 38 pts 3. GREIPEL 25 pts 4. COLBRELLI 24 pts 5. CAVENDISH 22 pts Sagan is on 14 pts.
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Roar Guru
Top 5 on stage 1. Marcel Kittel 2. Arnaud Démare 3. André Greipel 4. Mark Cavendish 5. Dylan Groenewegen
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Roar Guru
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Roar Guru
There will be a majority of sprint teams tonight that will be wanting to have that sprint done all over again. Leadout trains fell apart.
Brendon Vella
Roar Guru
Disjointed leadouts, Sagan left on the front to start the sprint leaves him finishing outside the top 10. Difficult start to his Green jersey defence.
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Roar Guru
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Roar Guru
KITTEL TAKES STAGE 2 OF THE TOUR DE FRANCE! Quick Step Floors were quiet all day, and placed Kittel absolutely perfectly in the final 300 metres to take his 10th stage win at the Tour.
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Roar Guru
Lotto-Soudal and Bora on the front in the final 500.
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Roar Guru
1 k to go.
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Roar Guru
Lotto now on the front as the break is about to be caught.
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1.5 km to go.
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Roar Guru
Bahrain now moving up for Colbrelli, as Dimension Data is looking well organized.
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Roar Guru
2.5 to go as the gap is only 14 seconds. Mass sprint coming up.
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Roar Guru
Quick Step on the front, as Dimension Data and Sunweb who are close behind.
Brendon Vella
Roar Guru
Here we go. 4 to go and the gap is 30 seconds supposedly. Looks less.
Brendon Vella
Roar Guru
5 to go as the gap is still 30 seconds.
Brendon Vella
Roar Guru
Sprinters teams leaving this late, as Adam Hansen comes to the front for Lotto-Soudal.