BARCELONA (AP) — Defending champion Tadej Pogacar gifted victory to his teammate Isaac Del Toro on the second stage of the Tour de France while Jonas Vingegaard retained the overall lead on Sunday.
Del Toro attacked on the 700-meter climb to the finish to put Pogacar in a position to win, but Pogacar instead slowed down and put his arm on the Mexican rider’s shoulder as he let him cross the line first. The 22-year-old Del Toro looked open-mouthed with surprise at the sporting gesture from Pogacar, who is looking to win the race for the third straight time and fifth overall.
As an exhausted Del Toro sat on the ground to get his breath back on a hot day, Pogacar went over to tightly hug his UAE Emirates-XRG teammate, who looked emotional after clinching his first Tour stage win.
Belgium rider Remco Evenepoel finished the stage in third place, just ahead of Vingegaard in fourth spot. The top four all clocked a time of 3 hours, 40 minutes, 1 second, but with the top three receiving time bonuses, Vinegaard’s lead over Pogacar was trimmed from 12 seconds to six seconds.
Vingegaard is looking to win the Tour for the third time after triumphing in 2022 and ’23. The Danish rider took the yellow jersey on Saturday after leading his Visma-Lease a Bike team to victory in the opening-day time trial around Barcelona.
Stage 2 on Sunday took riders on a hilly 168.5-kilometer (104.5-mile) route starting from the Catalonian city of Tarragona, and featured three ascents to the 17th century Montjuïc castle before ending in Barcelona.
Two breakaway riders — Dutchman Alex Molenaar and German Felix Engelhardt — were caught with about 30 kilometers to go.
As the peloton increased its speed, Vingegaard and Pogacar positioned themselves near the front to minimize the risk of being caught in a crash. Mindful of Pogacar launching one of his trademark sudden attacks, Vingegaard sat on Pogacar’s wheel on the climbs.
But the pace was too high for one-day classics specialist Mathieu van der Poel and he dropped back. ___
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