The 2024 Tour de France may be starting in Italy, but it’s the French who have stole the show in the first two stages of this year’s Tour.

Kevin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) won Stage 2 of the 2024 Tour de France. He got free from the breakaway with about 14 kilometres to go in the stage and stayed away to claim the victory on the day. Vauquelin, 23, makes it two stage wins in two days for the French after Romain Bardet won on Stage 1.

It’s the first-ever stage win for the Arkéa-B&B Hotels team, which has already made it a successful Tour de France for the squad just two stages in. Vauquelin gets a massive career highlight riding the first Tour de France of his career.

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) made the first major GC move of the 2024 Tour de France, attacking on the climb of the San Luca. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) was quick to answer, as the two-time defending Tour champion showed his fitness level is in a good spot and that he’s ready for a battle over the next three weeks.

No one else in the peloton was able to match the initial acceleration of Pogačar and Vingegaard, and—as we’ve seen many times over the past few years—it was just the two Tour favorites racing it out for the rest of the climb and then on the ensuing descent.

Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) put on a furious attack themselves to catch Pogačar and Vingegaard on the run into the finish. For that effort, both riders lost no time in the GC battle on the day. All four riders finished the stage together. They were 2 minutes, 21 seconds behind the stage winner Vauquelin.

Counting back places, Pogačar—who was fourth on Stage 1—gets the yellow jersey. Evenepoel is in second overall, Vingegaard third, and Carapaz fourth in the general classification standings, but all four have the same time.

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