For the second year in a row, Marcel Kittel only got one day in the yellow jersey as today's second stage proved to be too tough for the sprinter. However, he enjoyed his day in the spotlight and is now looking forward to tomorrow's sprint stage.

Marcel Kittel has conceded the maillot jaune on stage two of Le Tour de France at the end of a tough, testing up and down stage in the Yorkshire hills. While at the front end of the race Tom Dumoulin was racing hard to stay in contact with the front group over the final sharp climb of the day with gradients of over 25%. Dumoulin came home in 25th place just 16 seconds behind the leaders after a strong performance at the head of the race.

The second stage started in front of huge crowds once again with the peloton rolling out of York led by a very yellow Kittel aboard his special edition Giant Propel Advanced SL. The team worked early on behind a break of seven riders but they were soon assisted by some of the leaders teams as the day’s ascents were put into perspective.

The team and Kittel held strong until the climb of Holme Moss where Marcel started to slide backwards and lose contact with the peloton. In doing so he also suffered an untimely puncture which sealed the end to his time in yellow.

At the front of the race the peloton gradually thinned down over the successive climbs, of which there were nine classified during the course of the stage. Dumoulin was the final rider left from the team in the much reduced front group heading into the final climb of the day with just five kilometres to go. It was here the GC favourites played their cards and started to attack each other, causing the final splits in the front group over the top of the climb.

Dumoulin slipped back into the second group and ended up finishing like this after the fast run-in into Sheffield, eventually conceding just 16 seconds on stage winner Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) who took the win with a strong solo move with just over 1,000m to go.

After the stage Tom Dumoulin said: “For me personally it was a good day – I didn’t have super legs but did what I could at the end to stay with the leaders. I was there still until the final climb which proved one too many for me.

“The guys who did the reconnaissance earlier in the year helped to provide some handy information about the climbs and places to be well positioned which worked well. It was a great day for the team to have yellow too and we can now concentrate on tomorrow’s stage.”

John Degenkolb added, talking about Marcel and his day in yellow: “I think he enjoyed himself today. You have to be realistic about a stage like today – it is really hard for any sprinter to fight over these climbs. It is no longer our responsibility now though and we can look to doing another good stage tomorrow.

“What is good about us is that we are a really good as a team and work really well together, and I am happy to be a part of this team. We learn from every sprint and get better each time – I am really looking forward to the future.”

Looking ahead to tomorrow’s stage, Degenkolb said: “The goal will be to have a controllable break so we don’t have to spend too much energy before the final. At the finish we have to race like we did before and in a smart way. Communicating and timing is import and I am confident we can repeat it.”

“Despite 3,000 altitude metres I had a good time on the bike,” said Kittel after the stage. “The fans were incredible, there are no words for that and it was an awesome day. I was in front and there were so many people I just yelled at them to tell them to be even louder pretending like I couldn’t hear them – I thought I lost my hearing.”

Koen De Kort also spoke after the stage, saying: “It was nice early on to ride at the front for the yellow jersey. I stopped with Marcel after about 40km for a nature stop and when bringing him back up I crashed. From then on it hurt and I was sitting near the back of the bunch and I crashed again when someone got a feedbag caught in his front wheel so it wasn’t exactly my day.

“Yesterday was so nice and then today for me was horrible so let’s hope I can forget this stage quickly and recover for tomorrow.”