Mathieu van der Poel wins Tour de France second stage, organizers plan to sue fan

Mathieu van der Poel takes the yellow jersey from Julian Alaphilippe winning the second stage at the 108th 2021 Tour de France.

Mathieu van der Poel won the second stage of the 108th Tour de France on Sunday 27 June conquering the infamous steep climb of the Mur de Bretagne for Team Alpecin-Fenix.

The young rider broke down in tears after winning the stage in 4 hours 18 minutes and 30 seconds as he followed in his grandfather’s footsteps to take the overall race leader’s yellow jersey from Julian Alaphilippe by 12 seconds.

He now has an overall time of 8 hours 57 minutes and 25 seconds.

The183 kilometre long route from Perros-Guirec to Mur de Bretagne in France’s Bretagne region saw riders having to climb the Mur twice at a gradient of 14 percent.

Crashes and injuries are still shaping the Tour de France

Three riders, Jasha Sutterlin, Ignata Konovalovas and Cyril Lemoine, have now withdrawn from the Tour after Saturday’s two crashes with another rider Marc Soler not starting the second stage.

Twenty-one riders in total sustained injuries after the crashes on the first stage. Race officials are looking for the fan who caused the first crash on Saturday and have said they will sue the fan to send a message.

Six riders maintained a breakaway on the stage before being whittled down to only Belgian Edward Theuns for Team Trek Segafredo and Team Total Energies’ Frenchman Jeremy Cabot who were finally caught at around 20 kilometres from the finish line.

Dutchman Mathieu Van der Poel sprinted away from the peloton in the last five kilometres achieving a decades-long family dream of wearing the yellow jersey. Last year’s Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar finished second on the stage with fellow Slovenian Primoz Roglic finished third on the stage.

van der Poel now shares the King of the Mountains title with fellow Dutch rider Ide Schelling. Edward Theuns was awarded the most combative rider title for the stage and Pogacar the best young rider jersey. Sprint points lead went to Alaphilippe who will wear the green jersey in tomorrow’s stage while Team Jumbo-Visma currently lead the teams classification.