Stage Two: Belgian Bakelants Holds Off Charging Sagan for First Stage Win!

Jan Bakelants (RadioShack Leopard) launched an attack within the final 7 Km of today’s race, and held on by the skin of his teeth to win his first ever professional stage victory.  Peter Sagan (Cannondale) led the charging peleton across the line just one second later.

Marcel Kittel (Argos Shimano) surrenders his Yellow Jersey to Bakelants, and his White Jersey to Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma Quickstep); but with 47 total points he retains the Green Jersey, if only for one more day.
With three tough climbs in the first half of the race, the pure sprinters were dropped from the peleton before the capture of the initial breakaway group.  This created the opportunity for Bakelants and others to stage their late attack, from which only Bakelants survived - barely!  It also created the opportunity for Sagan to harvest not only intermediate sprint points (10), but also 2nd place stage points (25), giving him 43 total – 13 points ahead of Millar and more than 20 points ahead of Greipel, Cavendish, and Goss.  With four mountains in tomorrow’s stage, Sagan will likely pass Kittel and take over the Green Jersey.  Will he keep it all the way to Paris?

The Polka-dot Jersey changed hands today, as expected.  Pierre Rolland (Europcar) captured it by winning the category 2 climb of the day.  This jersey will continue to change hands until the big mountains of the Pyrénées, Mt. Ventoux, and the Alps have been contested.

The White Jersey went to Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma Quickstep) based on finish placement.  However, 18 of the 35 eligible “youth” riders have the same time, including Americans Andrew Talanksy (Garmin-Sharp) and Tejay van Garderen (BMC).  Like the climbers’ jersey, the final winner of the White Jersey will be decided later in the race.

In honor of Jan Bakelants' victory today, I present this photo of his RadioShack Leopard team car, from the 2011 Tour of Utah.  (Courtesy of Scott Wolford.)