Tour De France 2015 Stage 2

Chris Froome gained significant time on his Tour de France rivals as Mark Cavendish finished fourth behind stage winner Andre Greipel in Zeeland.

Manxman Cavendish was pipped to the line by Greipel, Peter Sagan and Fabian Cancellara, who took the yellow jersey.



Froome placed seventh on stage two, four seconds ahead of Alberto Contador in 13th and one minute 28 seconds ahead of Vincenzo Nibali and Nairo Quintana.



Team Sky's Froome, champion in 2013, is up to 10th in the overall standings.


Two-time winner Contador, defending champion Nibali and Colombian Quintana have been billed as Froome's main rivals for overall victory at this year's race, which is expected to be decided by how each performs in the later mountain stages.



But over an unpredictable 166km along the Dutch coast, the 30-year-old was able to stake an early claim on the yellow jersey as high winds split the peloton.



"I'm really thankful to my team-mates for keeping me in front, especially when that split happened," Froome said.



"I couldn't have hoped for much more at this stage. One second Nibali was next to me so I couldn't believe it when he was distanced."



Czech time trial champion Jan Barta was the first of four breakaway riders past the day's intermediate checkpoint, where John Degenkolb got out of his saddle to take fifth and three more points than Cavendish, who rolled over in eighth.



By the time the peloton reached within 60km of the stage finish, where high winds had been blowing all afternoon, the breakaway was caught and teams organised themselves in protection of their key riders as conditions worsened.


Quintana and Nibali were just two of dozens of riders distanced by cross winds, while Froome's team-mate Geraint Thomas was involved in a minor crash.


The Welshman recovered to finish 12th and move up to fifth overall ahead of Monday's third stage from Antwerp to Huy, where he will have an outside chance of victory himself.



"During the storm it was hard enough to see where you were going," Thomas told ITV. "I didn't realise the gap was as big as a minute and a half. It's perfect, I wouldn't turn that down."