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ZEELAND. — Andre Greipel won the second stage of the Tour de France yesterday as reigning champion Vincenzo Nibali and fellow favourite Nairo Quintana lost time.

Greipel edged out Peter Sagan by a fraction of a wheel length at the end of the 166km stage from Utrecht to Zeeland in the Netherlands.

Fabian Cancellara took third and four bonus seconds to snare the yellow jersey off Australia’s Rohan Dennis. Tony Martin, who started the day in second, one place and one second ahead of Cancellara, could only finish ninth and now trails the Swiss Trek rider by three seconds, with Tom Dumoulin third overall at 6sec.

But it was crashes and crosswinds in driving rain that made the real difference as Chris Froome, the 2013 champion, and twice winner Alberto Contador put significant time into Nibali and Quintana. After a four-man breakaway of Czech Jan Barta, Stef Clement of the Netherlands and Frenchmen Perrig Quemeneur and Armindo Fonseca was reeled in within the first 100km, the next 10km saw the main drama take place.

Already 60km into the race the crosswinds created the first split in the peloton, with former world champion Rui Costa of Portugal and former Vuelta a Espana winner Alejandro Valverde caught out. — AFP.