Mathieu van der Poel edged out Tadej Pogacar in a sprint finish to win stage two of the Tour de France and claim the leader's yellow jersey.The Dutch rider, who also won the same stage in 2021, held off the Slovenian on the line after surging to the front with 500 metres to go on the longest stage in this year's Tour,

The Visma-Lease a Bike team of Jonas Vingegaard were the protagonists, with several contenders for the overall classification — including Remco Evenepoel — distanced as the echelons formed. That main part of the peloton, which also contained Primoz Roglic and Geraint Thomas, ended up losing 49 seconds to the stage winner.