San Sebastián (Spain) (EFE).- The French Victor Lafay, from the Cofidis team, surprised the group of favorites and, with a dry attack just after the last kilometer banner, won the second stage of the Tour de France, with a final in San Sebastián, while the British Adam Yates kept the yellow jersey.
Lafay, in his second participation in the French round, got his first win, after having entered a few meters ahead of the Belgian Wout van Aert and the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar.
The second of the last edition, winner in 2020 and 2021, added the bonuses on the climb to Jaizkibel and those of third at the finish line, for which he is second overall, 6 seconds behind his teammate and ahead of Simon Yates.
Pogacar is already eleven seconds ahead of Dane Jonas Vingegaard, defending champion, along with whom Jaizkibel crowned.
Lafay: “Yesterday’s rage has given me today’s victory”
San Sebastián (Spain), Jul 2 (EFE).- The Frenchman Victor Lafay knew that the explosive ports of the Basque Country were a good opportunity to add his first victory in the Tour.
He tried it in the first stage in Pike, but it was in the second, in San Sebastián, where his effort paid off.
“It’s crazy, yesterday I was very disappointed, today I have not looked back, I have seen that the Jumbo were looking for the sprint and I have thrown myself into an open grave. I have told myself that either it went well or badly. I think yesterday’s rage helped me get today’s victory,” he noted.
The Cofidis rider launched himself after passing the banner for the last kilometer of the stage, which seemed to end with a sprint between a group of about twenty riders among whom the Belgian Wout van Aert was the fastest.
But he managed to maintain the difference and score his first victory on the Tour after having won a partial in the Giro d’Italia.
Seize the opportunity in the second stage of the Tour de France
In the first stage, Lafay was in the lead at the Pike pass along with the two great favorites for the final victory, the Dane Jonas Vingegaard and the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar, but his effort was in vain.
“This time I told myself that I had to attack. I didn’t have the strength to do it on the last climb (Jaizkibel) but I knew that if there was an opportunity I would try it”, he pointed out.
“There have been 500 meters of euphoria and another 500 of emptying the tank and running with the heart”, assured the Cofidis runner, who achieved the first victory since 2008 for the French team.
“For years we have been here to win the stages. We supported Guillaume (Martin) overall, but winning a stage was always the goal. This is going to free the team, although we are going to continue trying to win others, ”he commented.
“It was a premeditated attack, yesterday I couldn’t do it”
“It was a premeditated attack, yesterday I couldn’t do it, I was with Tadej and Jonas, today I had no legs to attack on the last ascent, I waited for things to calm down and when I was in that group I told myself that I couldn’t wait for the sprint,” he said.
“The dimension of a victory in the Tour makes everything accelerate, but I have to keep a cool head and think that I still have a great margin of progression,” he said.
The director of Cofidis, Bingen Fernández, defined Lafay as “an artist, an unpredictable man, he can do things like today to you.”
“He has won in the Giro, last year in the ‘itzulia’ they caught him in the last kilometer after a super strong finish. Today he has shown that he is an artist,” he noted.
“He is a more explosive man, who goes on specific days, he has come in great shape, he has targeted these stages and it seems that the Basque Country is good at it, he has those short climbs that allow him to get the spark he has”, he commented.
Fernández recalled that in 2008 Cofidis won two stages, but said: “For now we are satisfied.”
“If they told me before we started that we were going to win, I would have signed it. The bosses reminded us that we had not won a stage since 2008 and we decided not to put it in the objectives and look, we have achieved it ”, he pointed out.