Nibali takes Tour de France lead

Italy's Vincenzo Nibali finished two seconds clear of the field to win the Tour de France second stage and claim the leader's jersey.

20140707000989332239-original.jpg

Astana's Vincenzo Nibali on the podium after taking the win in Sheffield. (AAP)

Vincenzo Nibali has claimed the Tour de France yellow jersey after a daring late break to win the second stage of the race.

The Italian champion pointed to the national flag on his Astana team jersey after winning his first Tour stage at the fourth attempt.

"It's emotional to be wearing this jersey on my back. I don't know what to say but the joy is from my home to the stars," said the Sicilian.

The 29-year-old former Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana champion finished two seconds clear of the field at the end of a punishing 201km ride from York to Sheffield in northern England.

"Having managed to win the pink jersey (of the Giro d'Italia) and the Vuelta and now to wear this one, I don't think many people apart from Alberto Contador have worn all three," added Nibali.

Belgian Greg Van Avermaet was second with Michal Kwiatkowski of Poland in third.

Van Avermaet moved up to third in the overall standings with Peter Sagan, who was fourth on this stage and second on Saturday's opening stage from Leeds to Harrogate, moved into second overall.

The Slovak, winner of the green jersey the last two years, had been the favourite to win this stage but was left behind by Nibali's break.

Sprinter Marcel Kittel, who started the day in yellow after winning Saturday's stage, finished almost 20 minutes behind in a group of sprinters.

Sagan's consolation was to snare the sprinters' green jersey off Kittel.

"I'm happy because I stayed close to the front. Today was a very hard stage, everyone was watching me and how I moved, then I was attacked by another rider," said the 24-year-old, who started the day in the white jersey of the best young rider of the tour, a competition he still leads.

"The stage was a little bit crazy but it was OK. I took the green jersey which is good."

It was a thrilling finish to an exciting stage that featured nine categorised climbs, which eventually made the difference.

Overall contenders Contador and Froome both tried their luck on the short, steep, final Jenkin Road climb before Nibali, one of the overall contenders, used his descending skills to gain a gap on the field.

World champion Rui Costa and Froome gave chase but neither committed fully, each looking to the other to take the lead, and Nibali had just enough to hold on.


Share

3 min read

Published

Updated


Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world