Fontenay-le-Compte (France): World Champion Peter Sagan won stage two of the Tour de France into La Roche-sur-Yon to take the yellow jersey here Sunday.
Sagan held off a late charge from Sonny Colbrelli to win from a reduced sprint after a big crash in the final two kilometres held up the peloton. But there were only a handful of riders left to contest stage honours after a nasty right-hander two kilometres from the finish saw a number of riders hit the deck
With stage one winner Fernando Gaviria among those held up, Bora-Hansgrohe’s Sagan will move into the yellow jersey on bonus seconds after finishing second Saturday. Team Sky, who saw Chris Froome lose 51 seconds to most of his main general classification rivals after a stage one fall, successfully dodged the crash, and will not suffer any time losses with the incident coming inside the final three kilometres.
Mark Cavendish’s hopes of a 31st Tour stage win were also scuppered by the crash but the Dimension Data rider stayed upright. The dramatic pile-up capped another nervous finale to the race, with Mitchelton-Scott’s Adam Yates among those to fall in the final 35km. The Bury rider, who like Froome lost time thanks to a crash on the opening stage, quickly made his way back to the pack but with his left shoulder scuffed up
Astana’s key man Luis Leon Sanchez was not so lucky, forced to abandon after hitting the deck hard, while Romain Bardet’s domestique Sebastian Dillier also fell. Those incidents came as the speed picked up and the peloton reeled in Sylvain Chavanel, the Direct Energie rider who had been away sole since the 35km marker on the 182.5km stage from Mouilleron-Saint-Germain.
