Lafay gives Cofidis 'liberating' Tour win as Pogacar picks up bonuses

SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain: Victor Lafay gave his Cofidis team their first Tour de France win in 15 years when he claimed the second stage, putting years of scandals and near misses behind the French outfit on Sunday (Jul 2).

The Frenchman, who showed great form in Saturday's opening stage, powered away with one kilometre to go and did not look back with a reduced bunch breathing down his neck.

Cofidis had not won a stage on the Tour since Sylvain Chavanel in 2008, which was four years after the team was engulfed in a doping scandal and a year after they pulled out of the race when Italian Cristian Moreni failed a drugs test.

In 2004, Cedric Vasseur, now the team's general manager, was one of several riders detained for questioning in the doping scandal before being cleared of any wrongdoing.

The 27-year-old Lafay, who finished ahead of Belgian Wout van Aert (Jumbo Visma) and Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates) in third, said he knew his win was a relief for the whole team.

"I've been with Cofidis for five years so I can appreciate that it's liberating for the whole team," Lafay told a news conference, recalling that his team mate Benjamin Thomas had come agonisingly close to winning in Carcassonne last year.

"We've been going for this Tour stage win on the Tour for so long and also we've never won a French national title (since the team was founded in 1996).

"We came into the Tour determined not to finish empty handed. This victory is going to do a lot of good to all of us."

On Saturday, Lafay was the only rider to follow the pace of main contenders Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard, but eventually could not fight for the stage win.

Lafay's victory on Sunday still came as a surprise, even for his own team mates.

"With one kilometre left, the guys