Tour de France: Peter Sagan wins stage two to take yellow jersey
- From the section Cycling
World champion Peter Sagan won stage two of the Tour de France to take the overall race lead.
The Slovak surged past French hope Arnaud Demare on the slight incline to the finish and held off the fast-finishing Italian Sonny Colbrelli.
Sagan takes over in the yellow jersey from stage-one winner Fernando Gaviria, who was held up in a crash on a right-hand corner in the final kilometre.
Defending champion Chris Froome avoided the pile-up to finish in the peloton.
After his crash on stage one, Froome will be happy to get through stage two unscathed and his Team Sky team-mates worked hard in the closing kilometres to keep him up near the front of the race and out of danger.
His team-mate Geraint Thomas is the highest-placed Briton, in seventh, 15 seconds adrift of Sagan. Thomas, who says he is being given a freer role by Team Sky in the opening week, could find himself in the yellow jersey after Monday's third stage, which is a 35.5km team time trial.
He said: "We're communicating well and riding well - the guys are doing well for me and Froome.
"We'll try to get the stage win first in the team time trial and then if we do end up in yellow that would be a nice bonus."
More to follow.
