2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10#Stage 2
(41,9 km / h)
Anthony Roux (FDJ )
The second stage of the 2012 Tour de France was held on 2 July 2012. As the first stage the day before she was fully on Belgian territory. It led from Visé over 207.5 kilometers to Tournai. All 198 registered riders took to the start.
Route
The route went west through the Belgian provinces of Liège, Namur, Hainaut and Walloon Brabant. The profile was very flat; so there was only one mountain stage of the fourth category in the Citadel of Namur, but also with a sprint in Soignies. The stage was thus focused on the sprinter.
Race course
The field hit to the race start at a more leisurely pace and breakaways were made initially. Only at 22 kilometers ripped off of Frenchman Anthony Roux, who could quickly pull out a considerable lead. The Frenchman Christophe Kern and the Dane Michael Mørkøv joined six kilometers to it later. The projection of the triple leveled off at just under seven minutes and Mørkøv won the only climb of the day.
The field was then able to reduce the gap slowly but continuously. The intermediate sprint won core from Roux and Mørkøv. At this time, the projection was a little more than two minutes. 30 km from the finish Roux shook off his companions, who were caught shortly afterwards from the field. Finally, Roux was, who won the most combative rider of the vote, 14 kilometers from the finish also obtained. Thus, it came at the goal as expected to a bunch sprint, the Briton Mark Cavendish decided to just before the German André Greipel.
Mountains classification
Côte de la Citadelle de Namur Category 4 after 82.5 km at 188 m O.P. 2.1 km at 4.5 %