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LA ROCHE-SUR-YON, France – A year after leaving the Tour de France in disgrace, Peter Sagan of Slovakia won the yellow jersey on Sunday after doing what he does best: overtaking the competition to reach the finish line
Sagan, triple world champion in title, took the overall lead after improving a dozen other sprinters to win the stage 2.
His ninth career Tour victory came a little over a year after He was disqualified from the most prestigious cycling event by race officials who declared that he had caused an accident that broke the shoulder of Mark Cavendish
Sagan, however, said that there was no factor of revenge. celebrate.
"Revenge? I have already forgotten about last year," Sagan said. "I'm happy to be at the Tour de France, the biggest race in the world."
Defending champion Chris Froome of Great Britain, fallen into a ditch towards the end of Saturday's first leg, arrived safely
Sagan missed the sprint of the first stage when he was second behind Fernando Gaviria, who won his Tour debut. The second stage seemed to involve another duel between Sagan and Gaviria.
But Gaviria was involved in a pileup group in the three-kilometer zone that neutralized the impact of the accidents, and he could do nothing to prevent Sagan from claiming "We were expecting falls in this difficult final and we went back early, "said Enrico Poitschke, sports director of Bora-Hansgrohe's Sagan team. "That turned out to be important because we were able to avoid the last accident – it all turned out perfect."
Sagan moved to the front of the small group in search of position, reaching a speed of 57.6 kilometers per hour (nearly 36 miles per hour) on the last 500 meters on the finish line. With Sonny Colbrelli on the verge of catching him, Sagan seizes the win.
Sagan wins the 182.5-kilometer (113.4-mile) stage, from Mouilleron-Saint-Germain to Chef-lieu of La Roche-sur-Yon. in 4 hours 6 minutes 37 seconds.
Froome is at 1:07 of Sagan while he pursues a fifth Tour title. Although he was cleared of doping charges on Monday, he has been mocked by some fans since his Sky team arrived in France.
The title contenders Vincenzo Nibali, Tom Dumoulin and Romain Bardet are 16 seconds behind Sagan. Froome
Tsgabu Grmay of Ethiopia became the first rider to give up the race. His Trek-Segafredo team stated that he was suffering from "severe abdominal pain". Astana climber, Luis León Sánchez, then dropped him after having his left arm bleed
. -Kilometer (22 miles) against the team time trial that starts and ends in Cholet.
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