Benson Bulletin: Tour de France stage 2 🇫🇷
Hear from Van der Poel, Pogačar, Foré and Vingegaard after another pulsating stage
Hi Subscribers,
This evening’s bulletin is a shorter affair than usual simply because of the mega late finish here in Boulogne-sur-Mer and the long transfer back to Lille this evening. I’ve collected sound files from Mathieu van der Poel, Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogačar, and Jurgen Foré, and we’ll run through a few key points from today’s stage.
Later this evening and tomorrow morning, I’ll have news from Ineos Grenadiers, Jayco AlUla and UAE Team Emirates-XRG.
To coincide with the start of the Tour de France, I’m running a 20% discount on all new annual subscriptions, so for around £1/€1/$1 per week, you get all my transfer stories, interviews and race analysis. To take advantage of the special offer, simply click below.
Thanks
Daniel 🫶
Follow me on: Twitter — Instagram — Bluesky
We’ll start with Mathieu van der Poel’s post-stage press conference after the Dutch rider made it two wins from two stages for Alpecin-Deceuninck and, as a result, moved into the yellow jersey.
Van der Poel was clinical throughout the day, keeping safe and out of trouble in the rain, and never straying far from the front when it mattered most during the frantic run-in to Boulogne-sur-Mer. He never extended himself unless he genuinely needed to, and was faultless when it came to winning his second career Tour de France stage.
This year’s Tour de France couldn’t have started any better for Alpecin as they continue to look for new sponsorship. Jasper Philipsen won on Saturday and took the first yellow jersey, only for van der Poel to match those standards on stage 2.
Whatever happens next, their Tour will be deemed a success, but the most significant victory of all will be if the management can turn all of this fine publicity into meaningful results on the sponsorship front.
Listen to Van der Poel’s press concenfernce.
Remco bounces back 🇧🇪
For Remco Evenepoel, stage 2 was a much happier experience than the opening day of the Tour de France, with the Belgian present and accounted for on the technically demanding final climbs.
The Soudal Quick-Step leader finished 17th on the stage and moved up to 18th place on GC. He lost two bonus seconds to Tadej Pogačar, who finished second on the stage, but overall this was a much more complete and composed performance from the double Olympic champion and his team than we saw on stage 1.
At the finish, I spoke one-on-one with Soudal Quick-Step team boss Jurgen Foré about Sunday’s stage, and about the aftermath from stage 1 and what was discussed at the team hotel after Evenepoel lost over 30 seconds in the crosswinds to two of his main GC rivals.
Hear from Jurgen Foré: