The perfectly preserved medieval old town of Boulogne-sur-Mer looks like something from a film set. Its winding cobbled streets are topped by a 13th-century castle and intricate domed Basilica, and on a normal Sunday afternoon you might see holiday-makers or tourists strolling through the sleepy narrow alleyways. But on the drizzly Sunday of July 6 2025, the Tour de France visited, and everything was transformed. If we imagine Boulogne-sur-Mer as the film set, then we can call the protagonists in stage two of the La Grande Boucle the leading actors – and they put on a show which has been met with critical acclaim.
Organisers of the Tour, ASO, knew what they were hoping for when they concocted the route for this year’s edition of the race. They did not want the languid first week which we have seen in Tours de France of a bygone era, dominated by long sprint stages which had little consequence for the general classification. Instead, they created a recipe for chaos: punchy climbs, narrow roads and unpredictable terrain that suits a huge number of different riders. There isn’t enough climbing for GC men, but there’s enough to make the sprinters panic if the stage is raced in an aggressive way. This is the key.
The parcours of a Tour de France can only do so much – it is up to the riders to use the roads given to them to make things entertaining, and stage two of this year’s race was a prime example of why we are witnessing a golden era of professional bike racing. In the finale of the stage, where short climbs peppered the run to the finish, we saw a race contested by general classification riders and puncheurs alike, in a way that is unique to this generation of bike riders.
Image: ASO
Visma-Lease a Bike’s leader and former Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard, for example, attacked with just five kilometres of the race remaining, and a surprise move from Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe’s climber Florian Lipowitz had come just before that too. At the same time, punchy Ardennes-style riders like Kévin Vauquelin of Arkéa-B&B Hotels and Julian Alaphilippe of Tudor Pro Cycling were also in the mix. In the end, the stage victory was contested head-to-head between Paris-Roubaix winner Mathieu van der Poel against yellow jersey favourite and defending champion Tadej Pogačar, sprinting mano a mano for the showstopping final act in Boulogne-sur-Mer. The Alpecin-Deceuninck rider took the spoils ahead of his UAE Team Emirates-XRG rival in the end, with Vingegaard finishing in third place for Visma-Lease a Bike. This finale was pure, beautiful bike racing.
“It was a really amazing stage. It had everything: rain, stress, hectic, danger, short climbs like a Classic stage,” Pogačar said afterwards. “I was feeling good in the end and as a team we rode really well, but Mathieu was stronger in the finish today. Chapeau to him I’m really happy to take second.”
Plenty of credit can be given to Pogačar for pioneering the new style of Grand Tour racing we are witnessing, where each stage has an air of exciting unpredictability before it even begins. Over the last few seasons, the Slovenian rider has ripped up the script that once told us how a general classification rider should approach trying to win the yellow jersey, and the likes of Vingegaard have been forced to match him as a result.
Image: ASO
Van der Poel himself is another prime example of a rider who races fearlessly, telling Rouleur a few weeks ago that he competes “without being scared to lose”. That is exactly what he did in stage two of the Tour this year, taking on the sprint early and using his raw power to hold on to the line ahead of the world champion behind him.
“I was really on the limit, I just tried to survive the climbs, stay patient and hope that everything would come back together. The last kilometre I knew perfectly what to do,” Van der Poel said in his post-race press conference a few moments after collapsing to the floor in a dramatic style befitting of the performance he’d just given. “Yesterday was also hectic like this – super nervous all day fighting for position. As a team, we are used to this and we are good at it – that is what is part of our success. It’s been a dream few days for the team, and everything that comes now is a bonus.”
Ahead of the Tour, discourse in pre-race press conferences often touched on the extremely high level in the current peloton – more so than we have ever seen before. The stages so far have validated those claims, but the riders themselves are also doing everything to give us front row seats to the best racing we’ve seen in some time. As Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s team manager Ralph Denk summarised to Rouleur after the stage: “At the end of the day, we are all here to entertain the fans.”
Cover image: Zac Williams/SWpix.com
