Victor Lafay, rider of the Cofidis team, won this Sunday, July 2, the second stage of the Grande Boucle. He broke away from the group of favorites with 1 kilometer to go in San Sebastián to claim victory. However, the leader’s yellow jersey remains for the time being the prerogative of Briton Adam Yates, winner of the first stage the day before.
Lafay, 27, won ahead of two of the biggest stars in the peloton, Belgian Wout Van Aert and Slovenian Tadej Pogacar who, despite their best efforts, failed to catch him. Van Aert, favorite for victory with his sprint quality, slammed his handlebars in rage after crossing the finish line. “I believed it to the end, it’s crazy stuff!” Yesterday, I was a little frustrated at the finish. Coming to fruition today, from the second stage, is a sick thing,” said Lafay, who brought the first Tour de France victory to his Cofidis team since Chavanel in 2008, fifteen years ago.
The day before, Lafay had already made a very strong impression by switching to the lead with Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard, the two big favorites of the Tour, in the Pike coast, before finishing 6th in the stage in Bilbao. On Sunday, he did it again to do “the kilometer trick” and extricate himself from a group of around twenty riders in which remained the main favorites for the general classification.
“I was a little worse than yesterday. In addition, I had a side stitch in the middle of the stage, but I really hung on, “said the Lyonnais with the goatee, winner of a stage on the Giro in 2021. A few minutes earlier, Pogacar and Vingegaard explained themselves in the Jaizkibel, mythical climb of the Basque Country, black with people. Fighting over the bonuses at the top, the two men created a huge gap in a few meters with what remained of the group of favorites. “When I made my effort, I wasn’t even thinking about winning. I saw the line, I looked at the counter – 500 meters, 400 meters – and I believed it until the end. It’s a sick thing,” gloated the hero of the day.
At the top, shrouded in fog, Pogacar used his superior punch to scrape eight seconds of bonuses past Vingegaard, who took five. While there were still 16 kilometers to go before the finish, Pogacar led the descent ahead of his rival, who did not relay him. The two men did not insist and were quickly taken over by the group from which Lafay would emerge to win the best victory of his career.
