Tour de France 2012: Stage 2

Mondya's stage is in Belgium, starting in Visé and finishing in Tournai. The total distance of the stage is 207.5km (129 miles). An incredibly flat stage, save for one category-4 climb around the middle of the stage, but nothing big enough to trip up the anxious sprinters, of which there are many this Tour.

Tour Talk
We all knew that Stage 2 was going to be perfect for the sprinters, however, a win for Cavendish will not be so predictable this time around. With his old teammates fanned out over several teams, instead of having a large lead-out train, he now has a large number of competitors, and only one lead-out man on his new team Sky.

It is predicted that until we hit those really tough category 1 and 2 mountain stages, Cancellara could keep yellow for his team RNT.

Stage Highlights
• There is a breakaway consisting of three men, Morkov (polka dot jersey) is one of them.
• Tony Martin has injured his scaphoid, which could have led to his dropping out of the race, but with the Tour still in its initial stages, Martin is pushing his luck and riding with a cast.
• Early on in the stage Cavendish switches bikes due to an issue with his seat, and before that paused to change shoes! Perhaps they weren't comfortable, either way, these are signs of a nervous rider.
• In an interview with Tyler Farrar (USA) it seems the sprinter is confident in his ability to beat out all of the other sprinters. However, the young sprinter has failed to win a stage for months now.
• Morkov apparently riding in the breakaway in order to obtain the only mountain point available in this relatively flat stage. He gets the point, further securing his title as King of the Mountains. We'll see if he can hold on to that polka dot jersey in the real mountain stages!
• Update on the ranking for overall win so far in this Tour, Wiggins has a slight advantage over all of the other contenders. Time will tell if this advantage will grow, be maintained, or be lost through out the next three weeks.
• A little bit of Tour history, the green jersey was created for sprinters who, notorious for being unable to climb, had no points, or jersey to race for; no acknowledgment of their skills in the Tour. The points classification category (and its prize of the green jersey) was established in 1953.
• At 9 miles the last rider in the breakaway is caught by the peloton.
• Nearing the finish line, sprinters and overall contenders have rushed to the front of the peloton in order to get the best times (when the peloton crosses the finish line it is counted as all one time).
• A few hundred meters from the finish line and all of the sprinters gun it, but it eventually comes down to Greipel versus Cavendish (Sagan definitely not a contender at this point).
• It could easily be argued that this is one of Cavendish's best wins. Unlike most of his previous wins, he had very little help and more competition, and he still pulled off a win! This is Cavendish's 21st stage win.

Jersey Lineup Post-Stage 2
• Yellow Jersey (best overall): Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland) RadioShack Nissan Trek
• White Jersey (best young rider): Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC
• Green Jersey (best sprinter): Peter Sagan (Slovakia) Liquigas
• Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains): Michael Morkov (Denmark) Saxo Bank

Top 10 finalists after Stage 2
1) Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland) RNT
2) Bradley Wiggins (Britain) Sky
3) Sylvain Chavanel (France) OmegaPharma-QuickStep
4)Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC
5) Edvald Boasson Hagen (Norway) Sky
6) Denis Menchov (Russia) Katusha
7) Philippe Gilbert (Belgium) BMC
8) Cadel Evans (Australia) BMC
9) Vincenzo Nibali (Italy) Liquigas
10) Ryder Hesjedal (Canada) Garmin-Sharp-Barracuda