Tour de France 2019 – Stage 02 [FULL STAGE – Team Time Trial]

July 07, 2019

Tour de France 2019 – Stage 2 – Brussels (TTT) : 27,6 km

When the route of the 2019 Tour de France was unveiled at the Palais des Congrès in Paris back in October, it was billed as ‘the highest’ for a number of years, with the 2000-metre altitude barrier to be broken on no fewer than seven occasions. Now, after the loss of Chris Froome and Tom Dumoulin to crashes and injury, and with question marks over the form of 2018 champion Geraint Thomas, it is being talked of as ‘the most open’ in recent memory. That may well, of course, prove to be folly, but the absence of the four-time winner and, to a lesser extent, last year’s Giro d’Italia and Tour de France runner-up, would seem to open doors – not just to higher spots on the general classification, but also to a less predictable style of racing. Such has been the holy grail for race director Christian Prudhomme, who has made no secret of his desire to break the stranglehold of Team Sky, about to embark on their first Tour as Team Ineos. The abundantly-resourced British squad have won six of the past seven Tours with a style that Prudhomme has referred to as ‘catenaccio’ – an Italian footballing term meaning a rigid and stifling defensive structure.

Jumbo-Visma made it two out of two at the Tour de France, following up Mike Teunissen’s surprise stage 1 win with a dominant performance on the stage 2 team time trial. They took victory with a time of 28:57, 20 seconds ahead of Team Ineos and 21 up on Deceuninck-QuickStep.

Stage favourites Team Ineos set off first, and duly set the fastest time of the day at 29:18 flat. Katusha-Alpecin were the first team to come close, beating the British team’s intermediate times, but falling short by just six seconds at the finish.

Movistar and Trek-Segafredo both endured disappointing rides, falling outside the 30-minute mark. The main challengers to Ineos came late on, with a raft of favourites filling out the final starting slots.

Mitchelton-Scott, Bahrain-Merida and EF Education First all impressed, but ultimately fell short of challenging for the win. QuickStep came the closest, looking odds-on to top the standings as they reached the final run-in. It was a painful end for the Belgian squad though, as they missed out by less than a second.

But by that point, all eyes were on the team ten minutes behind them. Jumbo-Visma were flying, crushing the intermediate checkpoints despite losing Dylan Groenewegen inside the first ten kilometres.

Their speed compared to the other teams on the day was almost unbelievable, but they held it to the finish to breeze to victory. While before, 20 seconds covered the top eight teams, Jumbo-Visma saw to it that there would be 20 seconds between first and second.

“Yesterday was a dream and today is again the thing we dreamt of,” said race leader Teunissen after the finish. “It was really hard because of Dylan’s crash – he couldn’t give his all. He fought really well and did good work in the beginning and then we had one guy less.

“We had a tactic to do it without George [Bennett] because he’s just too small,” he added, joking, “But in the end, he felt really good and could help us. The other guys were really strong, really long pulls. All the little kickers were really hard, but everyone kept their pace.

“We heard that we were fastest, and we got so much morale – we already had a lot with this jersey on. We were flying, it was unbelievable. It’s not that I’m getting used to winning stages at the Tour de France but it’s two out of two now and it’s really, really nice.

“Yesterday it was mainly me who took the credits, but it was already a team effort. Today we had eight really strong riders but also everyone around – staff, trainers, mechanics – everyone worked so hard for this. It was a really big goal for us and that it turns out like this, it’s unbelievable.”

Teunissen extends his race lead to ten seconds ahead of four Jumbo-Visma teammates. The best non-Jumbo rider is Gianni Moscon (Team Ineos), who lies 30 seconds down in sixth place. Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) takes over the white jersey, but the green and polka dot jerseys remain on the shoulder of Teunissen and Van Avermaet, respectively.

How it unfolded

The peloton remained in Brussels, Belgium for the second stage of the Tour de France, racing a 27.6-kilometre team time trial from the south to the north of the capital city. Though not as lumpy as the 2018 TTT in Cholet, the stage would provide and early sort-out among the top general classification contenders.

Unusually for a favourite, Team Ineos set off first. The powerhouse British squad lay last in the team classification after several of their riders were held up in the late crash on stage 1. The team, packed with strong time trialists like Geraint Thomas, Jonathan Castroviejo and Michał Kwiatkowski, were predictably flying along the largely flat course.

They set the quickest time among the early runners, finishing with an average speed of 56.5kph and a time of 29:18.00. French squad Groupama-FDJ impressed too, shedding just 11 seconds to Ineos despite losing a man to a crash in the closing corners.

Astana also had a good ride, with team leader Jakob Fuglsang showing few signs of suffering after his crash on stage 1. They finished with a time of 29:38, just 20 seconds down on Ineos. Meanwhile, the triple threat of Movistar had a less-than-ideal run, losing 44 seconds to the Bernal and Thomas-led squad.

Katusha-Alpecin were the first team to beat Ineos at any checkpoint, going four seconds faster after 13.2km and one second faster at the second checkpoint. They faded on the run-in to the finish though, missing out on topping the timesheets by six seconds.

Meanwhile, Richie Porte’s GC bid took an early hit as his Trek-Segafredo team finished with a time of 30:15, a full 57 seconds down on Ineos. Team Sunweb fared better, finishing 20 minutes later with a time of 29:23, another team to just miss out on Ineos’ benchmark.

The later runners included Mitchelton-Scott, EF Education First, Deceuninck-QuickStep and Bahrain-Merida, and all four of them posted intermediate times towards the top of the standings. The quintet passed the first checkpoint at 13.2km within five seconds of Katusha’s quickest time.

They were no match for the final team off though. Jumbo-Visma flew through the opening part of the course, smashing Katusha’s time by ten seconds despite losing Dylan Groewegen after ten kilometres.

Mitchelton were the first of that late favourites to finish. They weren’t quite up to their usual standards, finishing seventh, 21 seconds down on Ineos at the Atomium. Bahrain went five seconds faster, and EF another eight faster, but still nobody could beat Ineos.

Deceuninck-QuickStep blitzed the course and as they hit the final kilometre it looked like they’d dethrone the British squad. It turned out to be a painful finish in more ways than one for the boys in blue though – they finished just 0.8 of a second down on Ineos.

Jumbo-Visma were the last team off, and if QuickStep were disappointed to miss out at the finish, then spare a thought for the eight men of Ineos who had sat in the leader’s hot seat all afternoon. The Dutch team smashed Katusha’s time at the first and second checkpoints, going ten seconds up at 13.2km, and 15 seconds up at 20.1km.

Results :
1 Jumbo-Visma 0:28:57
2 Team Ineos 0:00:20
3 Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:00:21
4 Katusha-Alpecin 0:00:26
5 Team Sunweb
6 EF Education First 0:00:28
7 CCC Team 0:00:31
8 Groupama-FDJ 0:00:32
9 Bahrain-Merida 0:00:36
10 Astana Pro Team 0:00:41
11 Mitchelton-Scott 0:00:42
12 Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:47
13 Cofidis Solutions Credits 0:00:53
14 Dimension Data 0:00:55
15 Lotto Soudal 0:00:59
16 UAE Team Emirates 0:01:03
17 Movistar Team 0:01:05
18 Trek-Segafredo 0:01:18
19 AG2R La Mondiale 0:01:19
20 Total Direct Energie 0:01:42
21 Team Arkea-Samsic 0:01:51
22 Wanty-Gobert Cycling Team 0:01:58

General Classification after Stage 2 :
1 Mike Teunissen (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma 4:51:34
2 Wout Van Aert (Bel) Team Jumbo-Visma 0:00:10
3 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma
4 Tony Martin (Ger) Team Jumbo-Visma
5 George Bennett (NZl) Team Jumbo-Visma
6 Gianni Moscon (Ita) Team Ineos 0:00:30
7 Egan Bernal (Col) Team Ineos
8 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Ineos
9 Dylan van Baarle (Ned) Team Ineos
10 Elia Viviani (Ita) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:00:31
11 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck-QuickStep
12 Kasper Asgreen (Den) Deceuninck-QuickStep
13 Enric Mas (Spa) Deceuninck-QuickStep
14 Yves Lampaert (Bel) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:00:33
15 Michael Matthews (Aus) Team Sunweb 0:00:36
16 Rick Zabel (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin
17 Nils Politt (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin
18 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb
19 Lennard Kämna (Ger) Team Sunweb
20 Mads Würtz Schmidt (Den) Katusha-Alpecin
21 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin
22 Søren Kragh Andersen (Den) Team Sunweb
23 Alex Dowsett (GBr) Katusha-Alpecin
24 Alberto Bettiol (Ita) EF Education First 0:00:38
25 Tejay Van Garderen (USA) EF Education First
26 Rigoberto Uran (Col) EF Education First
27 Michael Woods (Can) EF Education First
28 Tanel Kangert (Est) EF Education First
29 José Gonçalves (Por) Katusha-Alpecin 0:00:40
30 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) CCC Team 0:00:41
31 Patrick Bevin (NZl) CCC Team
32 Sebastian Langeveld (Ned) EF Education First
33 Joseph Rosskopf (USA) CCC Team
34 Simon Geschke (Ger) CCC Team
35 David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:00:42
36 Rudy Molard (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
37 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
38 Stefan Küng (Swi) Groupama-FDJ
39 Sébastien Reichenbach (Swi) Groupama-FDJ
40 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sunweb 0:00:45
41 Sonny Colbrelli (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:46
42 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
43 Jan Tratnik (Slo) Bahrain-Merida
44 Damiano Caruso (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
45 Alessandro De Marchi (Ita) CCC Team
46 Rohan Dennis (Aus) Bahrain-Merida
47 Matej Mohoric (Slo) Bahrain-Merida
48 Peter Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:50
49 Matteo Trentin (Ita) Mitchelton-Scott 0:00:51
50 Daryl Impey (RSA) Mitchelton-Scott
51 Adam Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott
52 Alexey Lutsenko (Kaz) Astana Pro Team
53 Luis León Sanchez (Spa) Astana Pro Team
54 Hugo Houle (Can) Astana Pro Team
55 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team
56 Magnus Cort Nielsen (Den) Astana Pro Team
57 Omar Fraile (Spa) Astana Pro Team
58 Luke Durbridge (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott
59 Pello Bilbao (Spa) Astana Pro Team
60 Patrick Konrad (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:56
61 Maximilian Schachmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe
62 Gregor Mühlberger (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe
63 Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe
64 Dylan Teuns (Bel) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:59
65 Gorka Izagirre Insausti (Spa) Astana Pro Team 0:01:00
66 Christophe Laporte (Fra) Cofidis Solutions Credits 0:01:03
67 Julien Simon (Fra) Cofidis Solutions Credits
68 Daniel Oss (Ita) Bora-Hansgrohe
69 Nicolas Edet (Fra) Cofidis Solutions Credits
70 Jesus Herrada (Spa) Cofidis Solutions Credits
71 Anthony Perez (Fra) Cofidis Solutions Credits
72 Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Team Ineos
73 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) Dimension Data 0:01:04
74 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Dimension Data
75 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Dimension Data
76 Ben King (USA) Dimension Data
77 Stephen Cummings (GBr) Dimension Data
78 Pierre Luc Perichon (Fra) Cofidis Solutions Credits 0:01:07
79 Jasper De Buyst (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:01:09
80 Roger Kluge (Ger) Lotto Soudal
81 Tiesj Benoot (Bel) Lotto Soudal
82 Tim Wellens (Bel) Lotto Soudal
83 Anthony Roux (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:01:10
84 Michael Valgren Andersen (Den) Dimension Data 0:01:12
85 Lars Bak (Den) Dimension Data
86 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) UAE Team Emirates 0:01:13
87 Jasper Philipsen (Bel) UAE Team Emirates
88 Sergio Henao (Col) UAE Team Emirates
89 Fabio Aru (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
90 Vegard Stake Laengen (Nor) UAE Team Emirates
91 Rui Costa (Por) UAE Team Emirates
92 Daniel Martin (Irl) UAE Team Emirates
93 Sven Erik Bystrøm (Nor) UAE Team Emirates
94 Jack Haig (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott 0:01:14
95 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 0:01:15
96 Andrey Amador (CRc) Movistar Team
97 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team
98 Marc Soler (Spa) Movistar Team
99 Mikel Landa (Spa) Movistar Team
100 Nelson Oliveira (Por) Movistar Team
101 Wout Poels (Ned) Team Ineos 0:01:17
102 Jasper Stuyven (Bel) Trek-Segafredo 0:01:28
103 Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Trek-Segafredo
104 Richie Porte (Aus) Trek-Segafredo
105 Fabio Felline (Ita) Trek-Segafredo
106 Julien Bernard (Fra) Trek-Segafredo
107 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo
108 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:01:29
109 Mathias Frank (Swi) AG2R La Mondiale
110 Tony Gallopin (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
111 Alexis Gougeard (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
112 Benoit Cosnefroy (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
113 Nikias Arndt (Ger) Team Sunweb 0:01:32
114 Tom Scully (NZl) EF Education First
115 Marco Haller (Aut) Katusha-Alpecin 0:01:34
116 Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg (RSA) Dimension Data 0:01:39
117 Natnael Berhane (Eri) Cofidis Solutions Credits 0:01:40
118 Oliver Naesen (Bel) AG2R La Mondiale 0:01:46
119 Lilian Calmejane (Fra) Total Direct Energie 0:01:52
120 Romain Sicard (Fra) Total Direct Energie
121 Paul Ourselin (Fra) Total Direct Energie
122 Rein Taaramäe (Est) Total Direct Energie
123 Niki Terpstra (Ned) Total Direct Energie
124 Laurens De Plus (Bel) Team Jumbo-Visma 0:01:55
125 Luke Rowe (GBr) Team Ineos 0:01:58
126 Warren Barguil (Fra) Arkéa Samsic 0:02:01
127 Amael Moinard (Fra) Arkéa Samsic
128 Maxime Bouet (Fra) Arkéa Samsic
129 Florian Vachon (Fra) Arkéa Samsic
130 Simon Clarke (Aus) EF Education First 0:02:02
131 Andrea Pasqualon (Ita) Wanty-Gobert 0:02:08
132 Guillaume Martin (Fra) Wanty-Gobert
133 Xandro Meurisse (Bel) Wanty-Gobert
134 Odd Christian Eiking (Nor) Wanty-Gobert
135 Anthony Turgis (Fra) Total Direct Energie 0:02:09
136 Michael Schär (Swi) CCC Team 0:02:10
137 Yoann Offredo (Fra) Wanty-Gobert 0:02:11
138 Maxime Monfort (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:02:13
139 Mikael Cherel (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:02:15
140 Alexis Vuillermoz (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
141 Frederik Backaert (Bel) Wanty-Gobert 0:02:17
142 Marcus Burghardt (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:02:18
143 Kevin Van Melsen (Bel) Wanty-Gobert 0:02:28
144 Imanol Erviti (Spa) Movistar Team 0:02:29
145 Niccolò Bonifazio (Ita) Total Direct Energie 0:02:34
146 Lukasz Wisniowski (Pol) CCC Team 0:02:42
147 Anthony Delaplace (Fra) Arkéa Samsic 0:02:44
148 Aime De Gendt (Bel) Wanty-Gobert 0:02:49
149 Cees Bol (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:02:50
150 Chad Haga (USA) Team Sunweb 0:02:54
151 William Bonnet (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:02:55
152 Fabien Grellier (Fra) Total Direct Energie
153 Matthieu Ladagnous (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:02:56
154 André Greipel (Ger) Arkéa Samsic 0:03:11
155 Carlos Verona (Spa) Movistar Team 0:03:13
156 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Lotto Soudal 0:03:15
157 Thomas De Gendt (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:03:17
158 Amund Grøndahl Jansen (Nor) Team Jumbo-Visma 0:03:20
159 Christopher Juul Jensen (Den) Mitchelton-Scott 0:03:25
160 Maximiliano Richeze (Arg) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:03:36
161 Michael Hepburn (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott 0:03:56
162 Simon Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott
163 Jens Keukeleire (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:03:57
164 Dylan Groenewegen (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma 0:04:32
165 Michael Mørkøv (Den) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:04:33
166 Jonathan Castroviejo (Spa) Team Ineos 0:04:41
167 Serge Pauwels (Bel) CCC Team 0:04:49
168 Koen de Kort (Ned) Trek-Segafredo 0:04:57
169 Ivan Garcia (Spa) Bahrain-Merida 0:05:10
170 Stéphane Rossetto (Fra) Cofidis Solutions Credits 0:05:17
171 Kevin Ledanois (Fra) Arkéa Samsic 0:05:27
172 Dries Devenyns (Bel) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:05:31
173 Lukas Pöstlberger (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:06:01
174 Jens Debusschere (Bel) Katusha-Alpecin 0:06:39
175 Elie Gesbert (Fra) Arkéa Samsic 0:07:22
176 Toms Skujins (Lat) Trek-Segafredo 0:07:46