[themaclad]

Fully expect the race to be cancelled with the result to stand as the French entertainer Alaphillipe wins stage and gets yellow, the sprint to the line saw him messing around with his hat, shoes etc , before just about beating Hirshi with Adam Yates in third.
As for the stage not as many fell off even though the course had corners even Grace Kelly would have said no too, the three man break away at the end nearly cocked up as the main bunch nearly caught them, this was a great stage.
Allez les Blues

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Julian Alaphilippe won stage two of the Tour de France in a sprint finish to claim the yellow jersey in Nice.

The Frenchman held off Marc Hirschi to edge home by half a wheel after leaving Britain's Adam Yates behind in a final dart for the line.

He leads Yates, who finished third, by four seconds in the overall standings.

It was a fifth stage victory at the Tour for the 28-year-old, after the riders faced a 186km mountainous second stage, with two climbs above 1,500m.

Stage two result
1. Julian Alaphilippe (Fra/Deceuninck-Quick-Step) 4hrs 55mins 27secs

2. Marc Hirschi (Swi/Team Sunweb) same time

3. Adam Yates (GB/Mitchelton-Scott) +1sec

4. Greg Van Avermaet (Bel/CCC Team) +2secs

5. Sergio Higuita (Col/EF Pro Cycling ) same time

6. Bauke Mollema (Ned/Trek-Segafredo)

7. Alexey Lutsenko (KazAstana Pro Team)

8. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates)

9. Maximilian Schachmann (Ger/BORA-hansgrohe)

10. Alberto Bettiol (Ita/EF Pro Cycling)

General classification after stage two
1. Julian Alaphilippe (Fra/Deceuninck-Quick-Step) 8hrs 41mins 35secs

2. Adam Yates (GB/Mitchelton-Scott) +4secs

3. Marc Hirschi (Swi/Team Sunweb) +7secs

4. Sergio Higuita (Col/EF Pro Cycling) +17secs

5. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates) same time

6. Esteban Chaves (Col/Mitchelton-Scott)

7. Davide Formolo (Ita/UAE Team Emirates)

8. Egan Bernal (Col/INEOS Grenadiers)

9. Richard Carapaz (Ecu/INEOS Grenadiers)

10. Tom Dumoulin (Ned/Jumbo-Visma)