Bonjour a﷽nd welcome to the Cyclingnews live covera🍸ge of stage 2 of the Tour des Alpes Maritimes et du Var.

A🐼s the Cyclingnews blimp takes hei✃ght, the riders have rolled out for a tough day in the saddle. 

The 168.9km stage twis🅠ts and turns and dips and rolls through the countryside around Fayence, with a number of testin🐈g climbs and another uphill finish.  

A total of 149 riders rolled out from the start. There has  been a series of attacks but now the peloton is al꧅l together and lined out.  

This was the stage start, with stage 1 winner Bauke M🌺ollema in the leader's yellow jersey.

160km to go

The o﷽pening 60km are on rolling roads, making it hard for a breakaway to go clear.&🌳nbsp;

On Friday B🐬auke Mollema powered to victory on stage 1 on the upꦇhill finish. 

To 📖read our full stage report and see tཧhe photo gallery and full results, click below. 

Tour du Var: Mollema wins stage 1

The speed is high at over 45km/h but the peloton is stilꦿl together. 

The speed is hurting some riders, with several conꦿtinental team riders distanced.

Thꦚey will have to try to fight back or face a long, l🐠onely day in the saddle. 

Surprising🔥ly Oliver Naesen from AG2R is among the riders that are distanced. The Belgian was on the attack yesterday. We're not sure if he suffered some kind of problem but will keep track of his position.

Allez! We have a new attack. 

Jose Manuel Diaz (Delko) Clement Ber𒀰thet (Delko) Victor de la Parte (Total) Hugo Houle (Astana) and Andrea Mifsud (Swiss Racing) have a gap. 

Three 🔯other riders have joined the attack and the peloton seems happy to let them go. The gap is rising rapidly.𒉰 

The riders on the attack are: Biniam Ghirmay (Delko) Clement Berthet (Delko) Victor de la Parte (Total) Hugo Houle (Astana) Andrea Mifsud (Swiss Racing) Cyril Barthe (B💫&B) Dylan Kowalski (R♊oubaix Lille Metropole).

The peloton is at 2:20 now after easing up. We have the first real break of the day.

As you can see from this video of the stage start, the sun is out i🃏n the south of France for stage 2💜.   

130km to go

The peloton is still losing time to the attack. The gap is close to 3:00 but we expec🎃t Trek-Segafredo to soon take up the chase and ride tempo behind to keep them under control.   

The gap to the break is up to 4:00. 

Allez. Allez. 

Here are the seven attackers.

After his victory on the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:opening stage of the Tour des Alpes-Maritimes et du Var on Friday, 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Trek-Segafredo leader 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Bauke Mollema told of just how he managed to beat out more explosive finishers such as AG2R Citroën's 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Greg Van Avermaet and Groupama-FDJ's 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Valentin Madouas on the six per cent rise ♈to the line in Gourdonꦺ.

"It was a finish for fast and explosive riders, it was not a super, super hard climb, so I was expecting i👍t would come down to the final 800 metres where it was a bit steeper again," he said after the stage.

Read Mollema's full reaction below.

Early sprint and team strength key to Mollema's opening victory at Tour du Var

The break 🍎is on the  Côte des Marjoris, the first catꦦergorised climb of the day. 

It is already hurting their legs. 

It comeꦦs🌱 in two parts: one is 2.7km long, then second is 2.6km long after a brief descent.

The break leads the peloton by 4:00 now, with Groupama also help𝄹ing Tre🐠k with the chase.

The clim🙈b marks the start of the hardest part of the stage, with the Col de Mons the high point of the day after 86km.   

Biniam Ghirmay is the first over the Montee Marjoris taking six points as he no doubt pursues the mountains𝔉 jersey. 

Andreasღ Mifsud was second and Victor de la Parte -was third.

The descent has helped the peloton push out their lead t𒉰o 4:45.

The stage has turned i🧔nto a🅘 day-long pursuit match.

Here's the peloton, with riderꦉs grabbing bidons as they go. 

The break can see th𓆏e Mur de Montauroux and the Col de Mons looming large up the roads now.  

The series ofꦐ clim🌃bs will decide how long they can stay out front. We could also seem some action in the peloton as teams try to shake out their GC rivals before Sunday's final stage on the Madone climb near Nice.  

The climb will gradually take the riders around 400m up t🧜o clo🌌se to 800m. 

The Mur de Montauroux.

British neo-pro 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Tom Pidcock has spoken of his excitement at making the step up to the pro ranks and making his debut at the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Tour des Alpes Maritimes et du Var, saying♈ that he has no problem with riding in the famous Ineos 'train', even if team boss Dave Brailsford is looking at a new racing strateg♊y in 2021.

"I've got no problem riding in a train," Pidcock told the Telegraph. "But they kind of know and understand how I want to race. I think they're very much wanting to change their riding style and D🍷ave has been in the media saying that. It's good to hear.

Click below for the full story. 

Tom Pidcock: I've got no problem riding in the Ineos train

Here are Trek leading the peloton. 

This is the view of♓ the sunny day from the Israel Start-Up Nation team car. 

The Col de Mons is hurting the riders and several have been♔ dropped fro🍬m the peloton as they near the summit. 

The 🔜break of 7 riders is still 4:30 ﷺclear of the peloton.

The break is near the top of the Col de Mons climb. We can expect a battle for t⭕he KOM points. 

Biniam Ghirmay (Delko) went over the top of Col de Mons first in the break. He will take the red mountain jersey from Krists Neilands (ISN) after today🦩's finish after scoring maximum points.&😼nbsp;

The peloton was faster on the climb and has pulled t🔯he gap to the break down to 3:45.

There is 72km to race.

After  the descent, the remaining 60km💯 ar♉e on rolling roads.

The stage ends with ♒the steep narrow kick up to Fayence. 

Victor de la Parte wins the the first intermediate sprint on the 🧸rolling roads.

The riders face 🥂a loop south of Fayence now before returning for the uphill finish. 

55km to go

The seven riders in the break are Biniam Ghirmay Clement Berthet Victor de la Parte Hugo Houle Andrea Mifsud Cyril Ba𝕴rthe Dylan Kowalski.

The peloton is chasing at 3:45, with 20km to go to the first passage through Faye💛nce.

💫The riders will then do another loop and return to Fayence for the race to the finish in the village.

The pace is high now as the peloton ups the chaseဣ.

Race on! The peloton has closed the gap to just 1:10 now.&𒁃ꦏnbsp;

35km to go

The riders are close to the first꧑ passage of the Mur de Fayence now.

Trek and Ineos are gatherin♌g on the front of the peloton. 

Kenny Elissonde l🍌eads the peloton on the steep climb to Fayence.

The gap is close to 2:00.  

Trek is upping the paꦕce with two riders on the front. Cofidis are also up front. 

A crash 🥂has scattered the peloton  briefly. 

Pierre Latour is one of those to crash. 

However t🌃he speed of the peloton has closed down the break. 

Dylan Kowalsk and Andrea Misfud have bene cౠau꧂ght,  leaving five riders up front. 

22km to go

The gap to the five is down to 1:30.

The sprint teams seem hesitant about picking up the ch🍸ase just yet🌊 but the peloton will have work hard now. 

The gap is down to 1:20 but the f🐟ive breakaways refuse to give up. 

Trek continue to chase but where are the other teams? T𝔉hey must be confident they can sweep up the break in the final kilometres and especially on the climb to the finish.  

Here comꦉe Ineos. Dennis, Geoghagan Hart ♌are both visible. Thomas too.

The attackers are on the climb to Fayence again. It's steep, narrow and twisting in the village, so posit🅘ioning will be vital. 

Soඣme r꧙iders need a push on the steepest sections.  

Dennis is slightly agitated about the chase. It's difficu𒅌lt to understand if he's talking to his teammate or other riders in the peloton. 

However Dylan van B𓃲aarle is now on the front giving it big licks on the front. 

Uꦿp front Hugo Houle of Astana is driving the break. But their lead is down to 40 seconds now.   

This was the break of the day, with Biniam G🌃hirmay on the front here. 𒅌;

Ineos are lined-out on the front now. 

Everyone else is in their slip-stream for now.

New signing Tom Pidcock is at the back as he begins his transition from cyclo-cross an⛄d Under 23 racing.

10km to go

A fast descent section lines out the peloton.

Ineos want to try to control the race all the way to the ꦏfinal climb.

however will Geraint Tho🌳mas and Geoghagen Hart have the legs to win the stag💞e and stay up there overall? 

It's over for the break. 

The motorbikes are waved out from behind them as the pౠeloton close them down.

5km to go

Gruppo compatto. 

Houle and🌄 Barthe try to stay out front but the peloton is on them. 

It's an early finish for the stage a🃏fter fast ༺racing all day. 

Barthe is trying to win the most agg♓ressive rider jersey with a final dig.  

2km to go

I🍌tꦐ's 1km to the foot of the climb to the finish. 

Thomas now✱ takes over on the front f💎or Ineos. 

Mollema moves up, aꦡs do other teams. AG2R take over for Greg van Avermaet.

Last km! 

Michael Woods is also up there. 

The pace goes up as the gradient hurts.

Woods leads as Gaudu moves up.

Woods is opening gaps in the pack.

Woods wins the stage! 

Woods ꦆmanaged to open a gap and so is likely to take the race lead too.   

Woods slowly increased the pace and opened gap in﷽ the ಌriders behind him.

The initial results🍌 show that Woods beat Mollema by two seconds.

Narvaez was third at 4 second꧂s, with Gaudu fourth at 7 seconds.  

The provisional GC shows Wood♕s as new race leader.

This is the top ten for the stage: 

1 Michael Woods (Can) Israel Start-up Nation 4:16:54
Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:02
3 Jhonatan Narvaez Prado (Ecu) Ineos Grenadiers 0:00:04
4 David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:00:07
5 Alexis Vuillermoz (Fra) Total Direct Energie 0:00:10
6 Rudy Molard (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
7 Ben O’Connor (Aus) AG2R Citroën Team 0:00:11
8 Arjen Livyns (Bel) Bingoal WB 0:00:13
9 Pavel Sivakov (Rus) Ineos Grenadiers
10 Christophe Laporte (Fra) Cofidis

Woods pulls on the bright yellow leader's jersey.

Michael🀅 Woods was happy with his win, speaking of his day in fluent French.

“ꩵIt all wor🃏ked out for me,” he said. 

“My legs hurt ෴but the team did a fantastic job protecting me. It was ꦰmy first race with the team but it went perfectly; now we want to keep the jersey. 

“Tomorrow will be differe🏅nt and be hard. The Madone is a hard climb but we have a strong team; we’ll do everything we can to keeဣp it.” 

This video 🍎from Trek shows how close it was for Woods and Mollema.

This is the top ten for the stag🎃e andꦆ the GC. 

Here's Woods in yellow. 

Here's the moment Woods hit the line. 

Here's a closer shot of Woods celebra✅ting his first win for ISN.

In the finale Ineos lead the peloton but they were swamped by other teams on the final climb. However N𒀰arvae🍨z finished a fine third.

To see mor🐲e images from the race, results and report, click below. 

Tour du Var: Woods takes stage 2 victory

Woods took the win and the flowers.

Thanks forౠ following our live coverage from France. 

Click below to read our full stage report and so see the fu🌱ll results and grow✨ing photo gallery.

Tour du Var: Woods takes stage 2 victory