Tour de France 2017: Marcel Kittel takes the second stage after winning a sprint finish while Geraint Thomas kept the yellow jersey.
Unfortunately, this stage wasn’t so fortunate for the three-time, defending champion, Chris Froome an other riders who crashed on the wet route when only 30 km from the finish line. Fortunately, Froome finished the race without losing too much time and advantage he won over the other riders on the first stage of the Tour.
Marcel Kittel makes it ten, Four neophytes on the move, Froome & Bardet crash. Watch the full summary of stage 2 #TDF2017 pic.twitter.com/s65emsggMK
— Le Tour de France (@LeTour) July 2, 2017
Thomas was involved in the crash also, but he was still able to lead Stefan Kung by around five seconds. After winning the opening stage a day ago, he admitted they were all in a decent position when a few other guys came past them quickly enough to leave them behind.
“We got up pretty quickly though. Anything can happen and I wouldn’t take anything for granted. Tomorrow is another day and we will be doing all we can for Froome.” – added Thomas
When asked if he was injured, Froome said: “No. I just lost a little bit of skin from my backside.
“That’s the nature of the race. We know in slippery conditions like that, every time the race comes on there’s a big risk something could happen and today there was just a touch of wheels, or someone slid just a few wheels ahead of me, and at those speeds you just can’t avoid it.
?L’image du jour / the pic of the day?#TDF2017 #TDFCENTURY21 @century21fr
© A.S.O / @JeredGruber pic.twitter.com/LCqu9PHISm— Le Tour de France (@LeTour) July 2, 2017
Second stage results
1- Marcel Kittel (Ger/Quick-Step Floors) 4hrs 37mins 06secs
2- Arnaud Demare (Fra/FDJ) same time
3- Andre Greipel (Ger/Lotto-Soudal)
4- Mark Cavendish (GB/Dimension Data)
5- Dylan Groenewegen (Ned/Team Lotto NL-Jumbo)
6- Sonny Colbrelli (Ita/Bahrain)
7- Ben Swift (GB/UAE Team Emirates)
8- Nacer Bouhanni (Fra/Cofidis)
9- Michael Matthews (Aus/Sunweb)
10- Peter Sagan (Svk/BORA)
General classification after second stage
1- Geraint Thomas (GB/Team Sky) 4hrs 53mins 10secs
2- Stefan Kung (Swi/BMC Racing) +5secs
3- Marcel Kittel (Ger/Quick-Step) +6secs
4- Vasil Kiryienka (Blr/Team Sky) +7secs
5- Matteo Trentin (Ita/Quick-Step) +10secs
6- Chris Froome (GB/Team Sky) +12secs
7- Jos van Emden (Ned/LottoNL) +15secs
8- Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol/Team Sky) Same time
9- Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor/Dimension Data) +16secs
10- Nikias Arndt (Ger/Sunweb) same time
