TV viewers all over the world were impressed by big Alexander Kristoff who managed to hang onto the GC favourites all the way to the bottom of the final climb in today's second stage of the Tour de France. In the end, it was too tough for the big Norwegian but he only lost 35 seconds to the best climbers in the world.

Day  two of the 101st Tour de France got right down to the business end of racing in a tough 201 km stage from York to Sheffield. The route included nine rated climbs, offering up a challenging profile to the 197 riders at Sunday’s start. Missing at the start line was sprinter Mark Cavendish who had to retire after his opening crash on Saturday.

"We knew this stage would be very hard," Katusha sports director Jose Azevedo said. "In the final part of the stage we still had four riders – Trofimov, Silin, Kristoff and Špilak.

"Alexander did a very good race today and continued fighting until the end. Before the final climb he was still with the leading group, but when a big acceleration from the GC guys came at 5 km to go, he could not follow them. But he finished in the group just behind them and this proves the very good condition of Kristoff.

"Iurii [Trofimov] was also very good today.  In the finale he lost only 10 seconds. This was not really his profile, but he did everything possible in the race. That’s sport.

"Today our team was united. We tried to play our card, we were active in the beginning and took some points in the intermediate sprint, so that’s good. Tomorrow is another stage where we can do something and we look forward to it."