Tour de France 2022 LIVE: Stage 2 result as Fabio Jakobsen wins ahead of Wout van Aert in sprint finish

The time difference between the leading quartet and the peloton was 2 minutes 15 seconds at the 12km mark but it has gone down to just 1’45’’ at km 17.

Bradley Wiggins has outlined how dangerous it could be for the riders today but that there is a fairly relaxed atmosphere amongst the competitiors saying:

“It’s quite relaxed actually, that break went pretty early and some rider just making adjustments to their bikes having swapped from the time trial bikes yesterday to the road ones today.

“The crowds are very, very deep so it’ll be dangerous when they’re up to full speed later on. Lots to look forward to with that.”

Pierre Rolland heading off on the early breaking is a sign that he’ll be going for the will be going for the King of the Mountain points on the three categorised climbs.

Alll three climbs are within the first half of the race today.

195km or so left to go.

Immediately there’s a breakaway from four cyclists but no-one else seems to be tempted by the early attack and the pelaton lets them go.

Sven Erik Bystrom, Cyril Barth, Pierre Rolland and Magnus Cort Nielsen are the men out in front.

Adam Yates of the Ineos Grenadiers has pulled over to the side of the road with a flat tyre. He gets it sorted quickly and rejoins the back of the pelaton.

Finally, they hit the edge of two and Stage 2 is underway!

There is a steady 4.5km run to the Départ Réel.

It’s the first road stage of the Tour and the riders start in the Danish town of Roskilde before cycling 202km to Nyborg.

These early stages will see GC contenders jossling for their ideal position’s in the pelaton and teams setting themselves up in the best places to tackle the expected crosswinds on the coastline and the bridge later in the day.

After years of waiting there is less than a month left until the start of the Tour de France Femmes.

A women’s edition of cycling’s biggest race has been top of the wish-list for many riders for a long time, and it will be granted when the peloton sets off from Paris on July 24 – the final day of the men’s race – reaching a climax on La Planches des Belles Filles a week later.

There have been tokenistic attempts, not least the much criticised La Course held alongside the Tour in recent years, but it has taken until now for a proper eight-day women’s Tour to be born.

“As a cyclist people always ask you, ‘Are you doing the Tour de France?’” former British champion Alice Barnes, a rider for Canyon-SRAM, told the PA news agency. “You’d have to say no and explain it’s because there isn’t one.”

There are just three small category-four climbs in today’s stage where a solitary point is up for grabs in the mountains classification atop each one and so should one rider from a breakaway take two, then he will wear the maillot à pois – the polka dot jersey – on Sunday.

If three riders take a point each, then the leader in that particular competition will be determined by their respective standings in the general classification.

The most obvious factor that could upend this Tour is the rise of Covid-19 cases across the continent once again.

The Tour de Suisse, a key warm-up race, was badly hit as almost 30 riders withdrew either because they had contracted the virus, been deemed a close contact, or because their teams pulled out en masse due to cases within their camp.

Already QuickStep-Alpha Vinyl have been forced into a change with key domestique Tim Declerq having tested positive just a few days before the Tour, and there is a real fear there will be more cases in the coming days.

The UCI has tightened its Covid regulations in response, but will it be enough to keep the peloton safe?

Much of this 202.2km trek is barely above sea level with only a couple of tiny climbs yet the jeopardy comes if the wind blows. It could create significant time gaps, particularly in the final 18km over the dramatic – and completely exposed – Great Belt bridges.

Jumbo-Visma and Ineos are masters at exploiting crosswinds, but the real experts are Quickstep-Alpha Vinyl with their sprinter Fabio Jakobsen the favourite to take the stage along with fellow Dutchman Dylan Groenewegen.