Kévin Vauquelin (Arkea – B&B Hotels) soloed to vicotory, 36″ ahead of Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) who took second and 49″ ahead of Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ) who was third.
Tadej Pogačar (UAE) moved into the overall lead followed by Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step), Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike), and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) – all same time.
Stage winner Vauquelin wasn’t sure he could pull off the victory. “I only started to believe very late that I was going to win. When I finally pulled away with Jonas Abrahamsen and Nelson Oliveira, I knew it was the right time and the right attack. Yet it was only very late that I started to believe that I was going to win. I know it is the first victory for the team. So this is a great victory not only for me.”
“It feels good to be in yellow again,” Pogačar said afterwards. “I was so close last year and then I cracked. This year it feels good to be back in yellow, even if it’s without any margin. It feels good, and it’s confirmation that I’m also strong. I’m in good shape.”
Jonas Vingegaard was surprised by his performance, saying afterwards, “Today was a very good day for me. It was one of the days in advance where I expected to lose some time on Pogacar, so to be able to follow him feels like a victory. We rode a high pace from the start of the climb and UAE Emirates took over. When Pogacar attacked, I was fortunately able to follow him. At the top, I decided to ride with him.”
Remco Evenepoel acknowledged afterwards that he made some errors with his positioning. “We were a bit unlucky that there was a break in the peloton one kilometer from the top of the San Luca, so I had to jump to the Pogacar group. It was difficult for me to move with the crowd, there was little space, so I actually had to launch an attack.”
RESULTS
Stage 2: Cesenatico > Bologna (199.2km)
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
