Bike Ping
We Have a yellow jersey and now the race begins.
Liège in cycling means a lot of hills before coming to town as Liège-Bastogne-Liège is one of the hardest race on the international calendar but stage 2 is dedicated to the sprinters. Only two category 4 climbs are on the map: Grafenberg after only 6.5km and the côte d'Olne 20.5km before the end. There's something unprecedented on the route: 35 kilometres after leaving Düsseldorf, the riders will come back to the starting town after a visit to the Neanderthal man at the prehistoric site of the Neander valley.
Geraint Thomas will enjoy his first day ever in the yellow jersey ten years after he made his debut at the Tour de France in London. Moreover, Team Sky will savor their domination on stage 1 as they placed four riders in the top 8 of a Tour de France stage for the first time since the foundation of the team in 2010. Germany's Marcel Kittel of Quick-Step Floors was the highest ranked of the top sprinters in the inaugural time trial. It makes him the hot favourite in case of a bunch sprint in Liège but his deficit of sixteen seconds doesn't enable him to move into the yellow jersey throughout the time bonuses as only ten seconds are awarded to the stage winner. His compatriot Nikias Arndt of Team Sunweb rode the time trial just as fast as him. He'll be the local hero on German soil until Philippe Gilbert's fans will take over as the last 48.5km will be contested in Wallonia. Gilbert will race as Kittel's domestique though. The other top sprinters to watch are André Greipel (Lotto-Soudal), world champion Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe), French champion Arnaud Démare (FDJ), Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data), John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo), Michael Matthews (Sunweb) and Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis).
