Julian Alaphilippe won stage two of the Tour de France in a sprint finish to claim the yellow jersey in Nice.
The Frenchman held off Marc Hirschi to edge home by half a wheel after leaving Britain’s Adam Yates behind in a final dart for the line.
He leads Yates, who finished third, by four seconds in the overall standings.
It was a fifth stage victory at the Tour for the 28-year-old, after the riders faced a 186km mountainous second stage, with two climbs above 1,500m.
Stage two result
1. Julian Alaphilippe (Fra/Deceuninck-Quick-Step) 4hrs 55mins 27secs
2. Marc Hirschi (Swi/Team Sunweb) same time
3. Adam Yates (GB/Mitchelton-Scott) +1sec
4. Greg Van Avermaet (Bel/CCC Team) +2secs
5. Sergio Higuita (Col/EF Pro Cycling ) same time
6. Bauke Mollema (Ned/Trek-Segafredo)
7. Alexey Lutsenko (KazAstana Pro Team)
8. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates)
9. Maximilian Schachmann (Ger/BORA-hansgrohe)
10. Alberto Bettiol (Ita/EF Pro Cycling)
General classification after stage two
1. Julian Alaphilippe (Fra/Deceuninck-Quick-Step) 8hrs 41mins 35secs
2. Adam Yates (GB/Mitchelton-Scott) +4secs
3. Marc Hirschi (Swi/Team Sunweb) +7secs
4. Sergio Higuita (Col/EF Pro Cycling) +17secs
5. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates) same time
6. Esteban Chaves (Col/Mitchelton-Scott)
7. Davide Formolo (Ita/UAE Team Emirates)
8. Egan Bernal (Col/INEOS Grenadiers)
9. Richard Carapaz (Ecu/INEOS Grenadiers)
10. Tom Dumoulin (Ned/Jumbo-Visma)
More to follow.
