Pogacar takes the yellow jersey in the second stage of the Tour de France

BOLOGNA, Italy (AP) — The two again.

It only took two days of the Tour de France to prove that Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard are in a class of their own.

Pogacar attacked from the chasing peloton on the second ascent of the short but brutally steep San Luca climb in the second stage of the Tour on Sunday and only Vingegaard could follow.

By the top of the climb, Pogacar and Vingegaard had opened a 40-second gap over the other competitors.

The move meant Pogacar took the yellow leader’s jersey from stage 1 winner Romain Bardet. Primoz Roglic, another general aspirant, went down 21 seconds behind.

Rider Kevin Vauquelin made it two French victories in two days, winning the hilly stage with an attack of his own in San Luca, to follow up compatriot Bardet’s success.

Pogacar won the Tour in 2020 and 2021, then finished second behind Vingegaard in the last two years.

Pogacar is targeting a rare Giro d’Italia-Tour double after dominating the Italian Grand Tour last month. Vingegaard had not run since a major accident in April left him with a broken collarbone and ribs, plus a collapsed lung.

“I can be very happy,” said Vingegaard, “that we could follow Tadej in the second time at San Luca, because this is probably one of the stages we were most afraid of. In fact, we expected that I would waste time—because of the preparation.

“Honestly speaking, I didn’t have a good preparation for this race,” Vingegaard said. “I only had a month and a half to prepare properly,” adding that the race “went much better” than “he had ever expected.”

The first four stages take place in Italy for the first time.

The 199-kilometer route starting in Cesenatico included six classified climbs, including two climbs in San Luca before arriving in the center of Bologna.

The San Luca climb is only 1.9 kilometers long but has an average gradient of 10.6% with sections of almost 20%.

Pogacar already showed his legs on the first climb of San Luca, when he accelerated to grab a bottle of water from a team employee on the road. That must have given him credit for his decisive attack on the second trip.

In the general classification, second-placed Remco Evenepoel — the 2022 world champion and winner of the Vuelta a España — and third-placed Vingegaard share the same time with Pogacar. Olympic gold medalist Richard Carapaz is fourth, also with the same time, while Bardet dropped to fifth, six seconds back.

Evenepoel and Carapaz caught up with Pogacar and Vingegaard after the descent from San Luca.

Vauquelin clocked almost five hours and finished comfortably 36 seconds ahead of Jonas Abrahamsen and 49 seconds ahead of Quentin Pacher.

Vauquelin, 23, who won his first Grand Tour stage, rides for the Arkea-B&B Hotels team, which took its first Tour win in the 11th cycling event.

Also on the run was Vauquelin’s teammate, Cristian Rodriguez, who set up his attack.

“We had a perfect day,” Vauquelin said. “I have to thank Cristian for his role in helping me to win the stage. He put me in the perfect position and I knew I could attack.”

The stage was dedicated to 1998 Tour champion Marco Pantani, who was from Cesenatico, and passed a museum dedicated to the still-loved Italian rider, who died in 2004. Fans painted Pantani’s name all over the roads.

The stage also passed through the Formula 1 circuit of Imola.

There was a crash midway through the stage involving Wout van Aert, Laurens De Plus and Matteo Jorgenson, but all three riders continued. Van Aert was then thrown on the first climb of San Luca.

Earlier, world champion Mathieu van der Poel was left behind.

Monday’s Stage 3 is the longest of the Tour, a mostly flat 231-kilometre stage from Piacenza to Turin that represents the race’s first chance to reach a mass sprint. That means it’s an opportunity for Mark Cavendish to break the tie with Eddy Merckx for most career stage wins in the Tour, with the pair currently tied at 34 each.

Cavendish battled heat and stomach problems in Saturday’s opening stage and had to dig hard to finish in the maximum time limit. But it went better on Sunday.

The race crosses back into France during Tuesday’s Stage 4, which is also the first big mountain stage that climbs to Sestriere and over the Col du Galibier – one of the Tour’s classic climbs.

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AP Cycling: https://apnews.com/hub/cycling

The Associated Press