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Bakelants wins second stage

June 30, 2013

Jan Bakelants of the Radioshack Leopard team has won the second stage of the 100th Tour de France. The Belgian broke away from the pack to win the 156-kilometer (97-mile) race from Bastia to Ajaccio.

https://p.dw.com/p/18yo4
Belgium's Jan Bakelants celebrates as he crosses the finish line at the end of the 156 km second stage of the 100th edition of the Tour de France cycling race on June 30, 2013 between Bastia and Ajaccio, on the French Mediterranean Island of Corsica. AFP PHOTO / JEFF PACHOUD
Image: Getty Images

Bakelants beat out Slovakia's Peter Sagan and Poland's Michal Kwiatkowski by one second to finish first on Sunday with a time of 3 hours, 43 minutes, 11 seconds. He takes the overall race leader's yellow jersey from Germany's Marcel Kittel, who won the first stage of the race on Saturday.

Kittel had started the day in the lead, but faltered in the hills and finished more than 17 minutes and 30 seconds off the lead. The relatively short but mountainous ride was not expected to favor a sprinter.

As with Kittel on Saturday, Sunday's victory was the first Ground Tour stage win for Bakelants. He is also the first Belgian to win a stage in the Tour de France since Jelle Vanendert in 2011.

"It's difficult to believe what happened today, it's fantastic," said Bakelants. "Today it may be the first and last time I ever wear the yellow jersey."

The race featured four climbs, including a category two ascent of 1,163 meters (3,816 feet) up the Col de Vizzanova and a category three trek up the Cote du Salario near the approach to Ajaccio.

The Corsican leg of this year's Tour de France concludes on Monday with a short 145-kilometer ride from Ajaccio north to Calvi.

dr/kms (AFP, AP, Reuters)