Tour de France stage 2 LIVE: Gap between break and bunch is closing as UAE Team Emirates-XRG takes up the pacing

These two are still riding hard with 45″ on the peloton as we are not far away from the finishing circuit.

Nils Politt (UAX) has done his job for Pogačar for now and is out of the back, but he may get back in again.

Multiple GC teams come to the front of the peloton with UAE Team Emirates-XRG, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, Decathlon-CMA CGM, Visma-Lease a Bike and Uno-X Mobility all fighting to lead the way in the peloton.

After the climb Van der Broek sat up and has now been caught by the peloton.

Molenaar goes over the top of the climb and takes the 5 points.

Florian Vermeersch leads the way for Tadej Pogačar’s UAE Team Emirates-XRG on the front of the peloton with 75km to go. Inside a minute to the break.

Girmay now losing touch with the peloton as well as the sprinters suffer after going all in at the intermediate sprint.

Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Intermarché) is off the back of the peloton and he is having a very bad day yet again as he continues to have stomach issues. He has been plagued with health issues in the last couple of years with Lyme’s disease and other issues with a bacterial illness taking him out of the Giro.

The temperature is apparently up to 38°c on the road.

Mechanical for Pablo Castrillo (MOV).

UAE Team Emirates-XRG suddenly come to the front en masse. The pace has rocketed with the gap to the break shrinking all the time on the first climb of the day.

Onto the 6.1km Côte de Begues, the category 2 climb with the average gradient at 6.5%.

Girmay leads in the peloton and takes 14 points ahead of Pedersen. The pure sprinters or Merlier and Philipsen seemed to get a bit stuck in their gears.

Molenaar shows he has the pace and wins the intermediate sprint ahead of Engelhardt and Van den Broek. The latter opening up too early and from the front. 25 points go to the Caja Rural-Seguros RGA man who is registered Dutch and was born in Rotterdam but he was raised in Catalunya, so is a local lad.

It is a big day for Ayuso as he races in the white best young riders jersey, something that has now been relinquished by the likes of Pogačar, Evenepoel and Vingegaard. He does go up against the likes of Seixas and Del Toro, though. But can he find the form he showed on the climbs in the Tour Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes as well as the early point of Paris-Nice and the Volta ao Algarve?

Pogačar was the fastest of the riders from the bottom to the top of the Montjuïc climb in yesterday’s TTT giving him the KOM jersey. However, Pidcock was faster in the final 700 metres, which is the steepest part of the climb, averaging over 40kph on the slopes that kick up to around 10%.

Veistroffer sits up and has now been caught by the bunch.

The temperature is now up to 35°c with Pinarello-Q36.5 deciding that they will take control of the stage as Tom Pidcock looks to take the win today.

Jenthe Biermans (COF) back at the doctors car. The medics have had a very busy start to the stage today.

Veistroffer now at +2’35” on the leaders. He won’t be joining them.

Second bike change for Girmay after crashing.

The gap yawns open to over three and a half minutes to the three leaders with Veistroffer just under a minute behind them.

No team has come to the front to control things just yet as the gap continues to grow.

Some of the big teams now swinging to the side to take comfort breaks as the peloton goes clear.

Yet another puncture. It is John Degenkolb (TPP) now.

And that is that, the peloton sits up with the leaders getting over a minute. Veistroffer is in the gap at 30″ and will be hoping to join the trio out front.

Veistroffer is now in the gap and the peloton looks to have finally eased up.

The peloton are trying to calm things down but they can see the break just 17″ up the road and want to bridge as Lotto-Intermarché manage to get a solo rider out of front with the peloton looking happy with that move.

Yet another puncture, this time for Damien Howson (PQT).

Gate is back at the doctors car after his crash.

Counter attacks continue to kick off out of the peloton but they don’t get very far off the front.

The three leaders are pushing hard but they only have 12″ on the peloton now.

More riders launch counter attacks in the peloton as the pace kicks up again to get into the early breakaway.

After that crash the peloton eases with the leading trio taking their chance to pull away.

Engelhardt is joined by Alex Molenaar (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Frank van den Broek (Picnic-PostNL). They have 17″ on the peloton so far.

Interesting to see Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) right near the back of the peloton already. The German struggled in the TTT yesterday and looks to be hurting early on here.

The peloton is stretched right out in one long line as the first attack is caught. Veistroffer isn’t giving up, though.

Six riders get a gap with another couple coming across as UAE Team Emirates-XRG chasing it down.

Just 1km to the official start.

Multiple issues for riders including Seb Berwick (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) who has a front wheel puncture.

Just over 5km left of the neutral in Tarragona.

Just 10 minutes until the neutralised start.

The temperature is already above 30°c in Tarragona and will get hotter as the day goes on. It is going to be a tough day in the saddle for the riders who will need to manage the amount of liquid and food they take on throughout the day very carefully.

There are absolutely huge crowds in Tarragona for the rider presentation and neutral start today.

Bonjour and welcome to Cyclingnews‘ live updates of stage 2 at the Tour de France 2026!