Kévin Vauquelin Takes Stage 2 of the 2024 Tour de France as Tadej Pogačar is New Yellow Jersey Holder

Stage 2 of the 2024 Tour de France gave spectators exciting battles and the second French stage winner in a row.

Riders took off on a hot, sunny day from the city of Cesenatico, with around 26,000 residents on Italy's Adriatic coast in the Emilia-Romagna region. The route started flat for the first 74 km before entering hillier terrain on the way to the center of Bologna.

The Stage contained six categorized climbs, five of which were Category 3 and one of which was Category 4:

Côte de Monticino (Category 3)

Côte de Gallisterna (Category 3)

Côte de Botteghino di Zocca (Category 4)

Côte de Montecalvo (Category 3)

Côte de San Luca (Category 3, climbed twice)

The pace went out quick and a breakaway group formed 8 km from the start, which included Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B). 

Norwegian Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X) was the first to summit the Côte de Monticino at the 74 km mark. Later at the 108 km mark, a notable crash happened at high speed including Laurens de Plus (Ineos Grenadiers), Matteo Jorgenson and Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike). All riders were able to mount there bikes again and continue.

On the first ascent of the Côte de San Luca at the 168.3 km mark, riders began launching several attacks, which were unable to be sustained. Vauquelin launched his breakaway on the second Côte de San Luca ascent and made it to the finish line alone. This gave his team Arkea-B&B Hotels its first ever Tour de France victory in their 11th time in the race.

Jonas Abrahamsen, who also held the the polka dot jersey for top climber after Stage 1, finished second on the day and retained his jersey.

Two-time winner Tadej Pogačar (UAE-Emirates) took 14th place on the day and took over the Maillot Jaune, finishing one place behind Jonas Vingegaard (Visma), who has won the last two times at the Tour de France. 

Stage 3 is a flatter route, covering only 1,100 meters in total climbing over 230.8 km from Plaisance to the city of Turin.