Tour de France Daily | Stage 2 | Neilson Powless rallies in hectic finale

The American scraped his way back to the front group after a minor crash in the last hour of the race. He was looking for his chance to attack, but never got the right opportunity.

All day, Neilson and his EF Education-EasyPost teammates fought to stay at the front of the pack. At 209.1 kilometers, plus neutral, stage 2 was the longest race of the 2025 Tour. The course took the race across the fields of northern France, from Lauwin-Planque to Boulogne-sur-Mer, with three sharp climbs concentrated in the last 25 kilometers of the stage, before a final ramp up to the finish line.

It was belting rain from the start and our guys had to keep their wits about them to avoid crashes and make sure they didn’t miss any splits. The skies cleared, as the finish neared and the racing heated up. Our riders did a great job of keeping at the front, lining up at the lead of the peloton going into the final climbs.

After crossing wheels with the rider in front of him on the third to last hill, Neilson jumped straight back onto his bike and into the action. The speed was just too high to try to break away before the finish, so he sprinted in with the front group.

Monday’s third stage will take us from Valenciennes to Dunkerque. Before we race again, read our squad’s thoughts from the finish of stage 2 of the Tour de France.

The start was wet, but a lot more relaxed than yesterday, which was a nice change of pace, but I think everyone was just saving it all up until the last 70 kilometers, because the last 70 kilometers were just gridlock. It was crazy. Trying to take one position felt like the biggest battle of your life.

There were quite a few crashes because of that, but luckily everyone from our team was all right. I touched the ground once, but luckily it wasn’t too serious. I had to use a bit of energy to come back. I actually thought my race might be over, because it happened at one of the key moments towards the end of the third to last climb. A rider went into a rider in front of me, and I didn’t really have anywhere to go.

I saw the group riding away and I thought my race was done, but luckily they didn’t press on too hard over the top of the climb, because there were still about 15 kilometers to the final two ramps. I was able to come back and try to position myself for the final climbs.

Luckily, I had pretty good legs, and I was able to make it up there in the front group. It was just a bit too quick all the way to the finish. I didn’t really have too much confidence in my sprint, knowing Van der Poel was still there, so I knew the only opportunity to win was going to be to go off the front, but I could see that anyone who tried only got about 20 meters. That was a bummer. I’m happy with the way I felt, but disappointed in the result.

I think everyone got lulled into a false sense of security. To be honest, the first hundred kilometers were pretty chill. And then, man, from that intermediate sprint, it was more stressful than yesterday. Every ten seconds, we were braking, sprinting. Everyone was shouting. Neilson got in the fight in the end. It was a good day and good fun.

I was really nervous again the whole day. We had to work on the reflexes today! We had to brake so many times. It was stressful in the finale. It really, really heated up. We did a good job to get the boys in a good position. We did our best.

It played out more or less as we expected. The guys did a very, very good job positioning themselves for the left turn into the final series of climbs.

Neilson did well to make it into the first group. We were looking for a chance for him to move away before the final climb, but as you saw with the other riders who attempted it, the speed was so high that they could never build an advantage. And, unfortunately, he basically just finished in the group there at the end and was unable to really make an impact.

Having numbers there is always helpful and hopefully when the race gets a little bit more selective and there’s a bit less control from teams blocking the road and keeping things nailed down, we’ll be able to transform our strength in numbers into actual action. You don’t get to the front of the race in those numbers if you don’t have the legs, so that’s cause for optimism.