Tour de France 2022: Three things stand out in the second stage: the silence of Jacobsen’s critics

The second day of the Tour de France has become a true Danish folk festival on the roads of Zeeland.

From the start of the stage in Roskilde to the end in Nyborg, fans lined the side of the road for 202 kilometers – except for the bridge over the Great Belt, of course, which was closed to fans.

However, the peloton crossing itself provided very impressive visuals even without the spectators – albeit without the sporting value that the tour organizers had previously hoped for.

However, the second day of the tour provided some sporting insights even without the wind movement.

Here are three notable things:

1. Jacobsen removes all doubt

Fabio Jacobsen withstood the tremendous pressure and won his first group race at his first Tour de France. Two years after his horrific downturn at the Tour of Poland, the Dutchman made sure his team’s Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Tour nomination critics were promptly thrown off their sails at first.

Team management around 34-time stage winner Patrick Lefevre did not take Marc Cavendish to the Tour despite his high level – which he demonstrated again admirably last weekend by winning the British Championships – in order to give young Jacobsen the full power of sprints to ensure support.

After all, the future belongs to the Dutchman and he has already proven several times this season that he is the fastest man in the peloton in pure sprints. In order to justify his superiority over Cavendish on the largest possible stage, Jacobsen had to deliver on the spot on Saturday.

The way he asserted himself in the Nyborg race was even more impressive, although Wout Van Aert and Mads Pedersen were still 50m ahead of him. “Diamonds are created under pressure,” Jacobsen said at the winners’ press conference. “I deal well with pressure and I know the team and my family believe in me. In the end, I’m the one putting the most pressure on me.”

But the 25-year-old wasn’t shy about commenting on his teammate’s absence either: “I think we both deserve to be here. He’s been a huge role model for me for the past 15 years. He’s a legend,” Jacobsen said. “I’m just grateful that I got over my place in the team – and while some may think I took his place, I’m sure he also enjoyed my home win today.”

2. The wind does whatever it wants

For days, looking at the tour’s second stage, it was all about the crossing over the Great Belt in the last 20 kilometers of the section. There, experts agreed it would be dramatic. In the wind, the peloton will split into several parts and one of the winners may generally lose a lot of time.

The drivers were nervous all day: before each change of direction during the stage, which ran constantly along the coast, Peloton sped up dramatically in the fight for the top spots, only to discover after swerving that the wind wasn’t. This powerful side blew again that the position of Wind Edge could have arisen. And so the speed fell again and again. And when the damned bridge over the Great Belt was finally reached, the air finally disappeared.

“Sometimes cycling is a little weird,” Maximilian Schachmann of the Bora-Hansgrohe team said at the end. “The 180 kilometres, it’s just a very nervous and hard ride. And then, in the last 15 kilometers on the bridge, suddenly there’s a coffee ride.”

The direction of the wind was the main reason for the lack of work hoped for on the huge bridge. Peloton blew head-on. The field for the riders was correspondingly slow, and the small groups under attack had little chance of breaking up.

3. Pogacar and his team are in danger

Jumbo-Visma and the Ineos-Grenadier Islands should have been particularly upset that the expected second stage wind rim race to Nyborg did not happen. The two big teams around favorites Primoz Roglic, Jonas Weinggaard, Adam Yates and Geraint Thomas starred with their dominant performances on Saturday. Both teams rode closely and compactly at the front of the field throughout the day and were always ready for the big bang. If the wind had torn the peloton, they would certainly have been in the first group.

But after the stage was over, the new yellow jersey wearer, Wout Van Aert, had to assess: “There was actually no chance of a wind crest coming up.” For his team Jumbo – Visma, the second stage was one of the best opportunities and above all, few chances to put the first favorite Tadej Bogakar (UAE Team Emirates) under pressure.

On the one hand, that must have been frustrating, but on the other hand, the second day also brought the realization that the Emirates team from Pojacar, who are very well positioned for the mountains, look very weak, especially on the flatter days of the first week of the Tour.

Because while Jumbo – Visma and Eneos Grenadiers always leading with the whole team force up front and Bora – Hansgrohe with Marco Haller and Nils Polit always took care of Alexander Vlasov in the front rows, Pogacar was often alone or with at most one assistant on his page – Mikkel Berg.

The Slovenian almost got the receipt 2.5 kilometers to travel. Because when there was a mass fall, Pogacar was only able to stop himself from falling. He touched the left rail and his tires exploded on the barrier posts as the mass collision occurred next to and behind him. She almost went wrong with the title holder.

“Fortunately none of us were there, although… ‘Fortunately’ – we also forced ourselves by our good position,” van Aert summed up that he and his Jumbo-Visma team showed themselves during the day better than the Emirates competition.