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Sunday, July 6th 2025

Stage 2 Lauwin-Planque > Boulogne-sur-Mer

After Jasper Philipsen’s success on day 1, Mathieu Van der Poel ruled an animated stage 2 to continue with Alpecin-Deceuninck’s dream start in the Tour de France 2025. The Flying Dutchman mastered an explosive finale, with a flurry of attacks towards Boulogne-sur-Mer, to get the better of Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) on the line. He also takes the Maillot Jaune, just like he did in 2021 when he won stage 2 in Mûr-de-Bretagne. Philipsen lost 31’’ on the day. But he’ll have another chance to win on day 3, as the sprinters eye victory on a mostly flat stage towards Dunkirk.

The 182-man peloton gather in Lauwin-Planque for a rainy start of stage 2. Yevgeniy Fedorov (XDS-Astana) breaks away from the peloton in the first kilometre, quickly followed by Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X), Brent Van Moer (Lotto) and Bruno Armirail (Decathlon-AG2R).

Their breakaway is momentarily disrupted by a crash at km 44, bringing down the Norwegian and Kazakh national champions, but this has no impact on the race as the quartet reforms and builds up a 3’05” lead (km 45). However, their progress is closely monitored by the riders from Intermarché-Wanty and Alpecin-Deceuninck.

Milan displays his power
After an intense battle, Leknessund takes the first KOM point of the day, up Côte de Cavon-Saint-Martin (cat. 4, summit at km 104.3). The four men work well together but the peloton accelerate into the last 90 kilometres. The gap drops down to less than a minute with 65 kilometres to go.

The pace is hard in the bunch but the attackers resist until the intermediate sprint. Fedorov takes the 20 points while Jonathan Milan hits 80 km/h to narrowly edge Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step), Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) and Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) in the bunch. The breakaway is then caught with 52 km to go.

Van der Poel flies
The intensity picks up again as the riders get close to the final climbs of the day. Wout Van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) sets the pace at the bottom of the Côte du Haut Pichot. Then Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates) ups the ante and the peloton already explodes.

Onto the Côte d’Outreau, Jhonatan Narvaez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) sets a strong pace before Kevin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) accelerates at the summit. A flurry of attacks ensue, but Mathieu Van der Poel controls things and eventually unleashes a dominant sprint.

Just like in 2021, the Flying Dutchman wins stage 2 of the Tour and takes the Maillot Jaune, as his teammate Jasper Philipsen crosses the line with a gap of 31’’.

Stage 2

  1. Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) 4h45’41”
    2.Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +00”
  2. Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) +00”

GC

  1. Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) 8h38’42”
    2.Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +04”
  2. Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) +06”