On the attack on the penultimate climb of stage two, Pierre Rolland (Europcar) crossed the summit in pole position to secure the polka dot jersey on an eventful day at the Tour de France.

Rolland attacked on the third ascent of the day, 62km from the finish, to open up a gap of 30 seconds over the peloton ahead of a long descent towards the finish in the birthplace of Napoleon.

The 26-year-old climber took the first polka dot jersey of his career by virtue of the climb's difficulty, with Kadri (AG2R) level on points after picking up points over the first two lower-category climbs earlier in the stage. Rolland also explained that the KOM jersey was not his primary objective of this Tour and that he would be focusing on the general classification instead. When the opportunity to take the jersey presented itself, though, Rolland did not hesitate.

“We knew before the stage that points were up for grabs in the King of the Mountains competition,” Rolland told L’Equipe. “We had David Veilleux going for them in the first escape. When we were one kilometre from the top of the final climb, they told me on the radio that if I could get over the climb first, I would have a good chance of taking the polka-dot jersey, so I didn't hesitate and I went hard to get the points,” the Frenchman explained. “I'm going to try to get through the final stage in Corsica without any difficulty and then we'll see how things look after that. But even if my hold on this jersey is temporary, the Tour's King of the Mountains jersey is really something special. I'll be very proud wearing it tomorrow.”

In addition, Rolland acknowledged that he had struggled somewhat in the heat on stage 2 in what was a very intense day of racing. "It was a hard day. These short stages are very tough, much more so than some of the longer ones, because the pace is so high throughout," said the Frenchman.