Rafael Carrasco: "Van Aert knew he could be a leader, he sought it out and he achieved it"

Rafael Carrascoformer professional cyclist and former historical director Kelme Cycling Team, Learn cycling and tours for DM.

In his opinion, these are the keys to the second stage of the French round:

X-RAY OF THE STAGE

As expected, it was dangerous because of the number of runners, because the people were cool and because of the crossing of the 18-kilometer bridge, which was really annoying. There has been some fall, but nothing more. The stage was won by sprinter Jakobsen. It was logical, but van Aert, who came second, started the day with the goal of being the leader, which he achieved at the end of the stage because he was a great rider and because he had the strongest team by his side.

THE FAVORITES

Now everyone is worried about the wind, especially when crossing the bridge. Nothing was cut, but there were falls and some of them had already reached the finish line of the latter because the massive fall was within the last three kilometers and there was no penalty. By the end of this Sunday everyone will come out without a problem

THE SPANISH

They haven’t been seen this Saturday and that means they haven’t crashed yet, so we should be happy because they came with the group.

CAREER SITUATION

Now let’s take a look at the attitude of the Jumbo-Visma team, of Roglic and Vingegaard, the two great favorites to discuss Pogacar’s final victory, and of the new race leader, Van Aert. I never thought this would be a problem.

STAGE OF THE WEEK TODAY

182 kilometers, much the same as this Saturday, with three 4th tier. A day where the favorites will study each other and try to protect themselves as much as possible, trying to avoid a fall, while the sprinter teams will try is for one of their runners to win .