Mark Cavendish took Stage 2 of the Tour de France on Monday:
Just about every team in the peloton had someone on the front of the peloton at some stage of the final 10km of the 207.5km race from Vise to Tournai but Sky was relatively anonymous in the final rush to the line. Instead it was Lotto-Belisol and Orica-GreenEdge that had the strength of numbers in the final kilometer. Greg Henderson charged into the front and delivered André Greipel to the 250 meter to go mark and that's when the giant German turned on the turbo... and very nearly claimed his second Tour stage win. But behind him was Mr Mark Cavendish who judged the sprint to perfection and did what he does so well: win!
That's 21 stage wins in six years for the reigning world champion and, like he did in 2009, he got the Tour off to the perfect start
Fabian Cancellara retained the yellow jersey.
Here's how Stage 2 finished up:
| 1. | CAVENDISH Mark | SKY PROCYCLING | 04h 56' 59'' | ||
| 2. | GREIPEL André | LOTTO-BELISOL TEAM | 04h 56' 59'' | + 00' 00'' | |
| 3. | GOSS Matthew Harley | ORICA GREENEDGE | 04h 56' 59'' | + 00' 00'' | |
| 4. | VEELERS Tom | TEAM ARGOS-SHIMANO | 04h 56' 59'' | + 00' 00'' | |
| 5. | PETACCHI Alessandro | LAMPRE - ISD | 04h 56' 59'' | + 00' 00'' | |
| 6. | SAGAN Peter | LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE | 04h 56' 59'' | + 00' 00'' | |
| 7. | HUTAROVICH Yauheni | FDJ-BIGMAT | 04h 56' 59'' | + 00' 00'' | |
| 8. | HAEDO Juan Jose | TEAM SAXO BANK-TINKOFF BANK | 04h 56' 59'' | + 00' 00'' | |
| 9. | RENSHAW Mark | RABOBANK CYCLING TEAM | 04h 56' 59'' | + 00' 00'' | |
| 10. | FARRAR Tyler | GARMIN-SHARP-BARRACUDA | 04h 56' 59'' | + 00' 00'' |
SB Nation Chicago is your source for 2012 Tour de France updates, and be sure to visit cycling blog Podium Cafe as well. You can also catch up on results and storylines from the 2012 Giro d'Italia here.