The second stage of the 102nd edition of the Tour de France led from the Grand Depart city of Utrecht to Zeeland. Rain and crosswinds determined the stage as expected. Shortly after the start, Jan Barta attacked. After the 30-year-old Czech crashed in yesterday's time trial early, he showed a reaction today and was one of the key riders until the chasers caught him at 62 kilometers from the finish line.

With an attack just before the intermediate sprint he broke away from his three escape companions, went on as soloist and won the first intermediate sprint of this year's Tour de France. Despite his attacks, Barta unfortunately couldn’t repeat his success from last year, when he won the red number of the most active rider on the third stage. Andre Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) secured the victory, Fabian Cancellara (Trek) took the lead in the GC. The BORA – ARGON 18 riders mainly finished in the first chasing group.

"The course and the weather made it a nervous stage. After his bad luck yesterday, we gave Jan the permission to attack today. Nice that it worked, which is good for his morale. He should ride off his frustration without investing too much and I am sure that he will now find well into the Tour. We were stopped by crashes several times, but didn’t crash ourselves. The team has tried to stay together and in front in all the crucial situations. This worked very well until the point where the 25 riders attacked. We haven’t lost too much time in the GC with Dominik [Nerz] in that second group and so we got off lightly today", says Sports Director Enrico Poitschke after the stage.