Marcel Kittel (Quick-Step Floors) claimed his 10th Tour de France victory when he won the second stage on Sunday. Arnaud Demare (FDJ) took second place with Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal) third.
Reigning champion Chris Froome (Team Sky) suffered a scare on the 203.5km second stage from Dusseldorf, crashing 30km from the end but he got up to finish safely in the peloton, alongside race leader and teammate Geraint Thomas.
“I dont know what to say … It was an incredible start in Germany with so many people,” said an emotional Kittel after the stage win — his first while riding a disc-brake equipped road bike. “Great! I’m super happy, super proud because it was for me a very special win today after we had the Grand Depart in Germany.”
But the main drama happened 30km from the finish as the peloton chased down a four-man breakaway.
A rider from the Katusha team trying to set up Alexander Kristoff for the finish slipped on a wet bend and crashed, taking down around 15-20 riders.
Froome and yellow jersey wearer Thomas were among them, with the champion suffering cuts to his lower back and seeing his shorts shredded.
He got back on his bicycle to chase the peloton but was forced into a bike change before finally latching back onto the pack with 20km left.
Thomas seemed unscathed and maintained his five-second lead over Swiss Stefan Küng, although Kittel, who hit 69.19 km/h in the sprint finish according to official Tour data, is now up to third overall at 6 seconds after taking a 10-second time bonus on the line.
?Top 5?
1. @marcelkittel
2. @ArnaudDemare
3. @AndreGreipel
4. @MarkCavendish
5. @GroenewegenD pic.twitter.com/AXsuQNVPiv— Le Tour de France (@LeTour) July 2, 2017
Tour de France 2017 – stage 2 results (Düsseldorf – Liège):
| 1 | Marcel Kittel (Quick-Step Floors) | 4:37:06 |
| 2 | Arnaud Demare (FDJ) | ,, |
| 3 | André Greipel (Lotto Soudal) | ,, |
| 4 | Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) | ,, |
| 5 | Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNl-Jumbo) | ,, |
| 6 | Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain Merida) | ,, |
| 7 | Ben Swift (UAE Team Emirates) | ,, |
| 8 | Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) | ,, |
| 9 | Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) | ,, |
| 10 | Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) | ,, |
| 11 | Andrea Pasqualon (Wanty – Groupe Gobert) | ,, |
| 12 | Pieter Vanspeybrouck (Wanty – Groupe Gobert) | ,, |
| 13 | John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo) | ,, |
| 14 | Daniel McLay (Fortuneo – Oscaro) | ,, |
| 15 | Alexander Kristoff (Katusha-Alpecin) | ,, |
| 16 | Matteo Trentin (Quick-Step Floors) | ,, |
| 17 | Dion Smith (Wanty – Groupe Gobert) | ,, |
| 18 | Angelo Tulik (Direct Energie) | ,, |
| 19 | Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) | ,, |
| 20 | Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) | ,, |
