The Jumbo jersey of the yellow jersey, Dutchman Mike Teunissen, won Sunday the second stage of the Tour de France, a 27.6-kilometer team time trial in Brussels.
Teunissen, winner of the first stage sprint on Saturday, consolidated his position at the top of the Tour after this stage which left the candidates in the yellow jersey in a narrow range.
The Dutch group, which has one overall candidate, Dutchman Steven Kruijswijk, beat the Ineos of Gallois Geraint Thomas and Colombian Egan Bernal by 21 seconds, 21 seconds behind Deceuninck by Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe.
Top performance for Groupama-FDJ
The gaps were very tight between the favorites. The poorest of them, the Frenchman Romain Bardet, dropped less than a minute on the leaders of the Ineos team, a disbursement less than last year, even if his AG2R-La Mondiale did not took that 19th place of the stage.
On the other hand, the team of the other French contender, Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), achieved a high-level performance, a dozen seconds from the British benchmark.
The Astana team of Denmark's Jakob Fuglsang, who did not show up at best during the race after his fall, was 20 seconds behind Ineos, barely worse than the Bahrain of the Italian Vincenzo Nibali (16 seconds).
Monday, the 3rd stage will mark the arrival in French territory. The 215 kilometers between Binche (Belgium) and Epernay end with a succession of "roller coasters", with a category 4 pass at Nanteuil-la-Forêt (1.1 km at 6.8%), and an uphill final (500m to 8%).
With AFP