A piece of cycling history has been created in the Tour de France with Auckland rider Dion Smith becoming the first New Zealander to wear the polka dot King of the Mountain jersey.
Smith, riding for the Wanty-Groupe Gobert team is competing in just his second Tour de France and pulled on jersey at the end of the second stage of this year's tour after he grabbed the only point on offer for a small hill climb.
Dion Smith. Photo: Tour de France
The point put him tied at the top of the mountain classification with Kevin Ledanois, but because Smith is better placed on the general classification, he gets to wear the jersey.
"It's pretty special to be on the podium. I'm the first Kiwi for the polka dot jersey. To represent the country and Wanty-Groupe Gobert this way, it's very big," he said.
"The plan this morning was to get the jersey or at least score a point, then sit up and wait for the bunch to save some energy for the coming days".
"For sure I'll keep it tomorrow after the team time trial and the next stage I should keep it too. Whatever happens from there, we'll see. We have a GC rider, Guillaume Martin, so the team time trial is pretty important for the team.
With tomorrow's stage being a 35km time trial and barring a crash Smith should also get to waer the polka dot jersey for at least another couple of days.
Peter Sagan Photo: Photosport
Meanwhile a year after being kicked out of the Tour de France, world champion Peter Sagan was back with a bang as he claimed victory in the second stage to take the overall leader's yellow jersey.
Sagan was thrown out after the fourth stage 12 months ago for sending Mark Cavendish crashing in a chaotic sprint, but the Slovak won it clean this time to beat Italian Sonny Colbrelli and France's Arnaud Demare into second and third places.
"It's a perfect day, I was a bit scared because Sonny was coming back strong," said Sagan, who also wore the yellow jersey in 2016.
"It's a very good start. I'm really back."
Colombian Fernando Gaviria, who won the opening stage on Saturday and wore the yellow jersey during the 182.5-km ride from Mouilleron-Saint-Germain, crashed in the finale and was unable to contest the sprint.
Defending champion Chris Froome, who lost 51 seconds to some of his main rivals after crashing on Saturday, had an uneventful day on the bike and finished safely in the peloton.
The Briton, hoping to become the first rider since Marco Pantani in 1998 to achieve a Giro d'Italia-Tour double, was booed by the French crowd ahead of the start.
Froome has been cleared of any wrongdoing after testing positive for excessive levels of the anti-asthma drug Salbutamol, but the locals have been jeering and whistling the four-times champion.
