With 13 kilometres to go, the French rider made the decisive move on the climb, eventually pulling Swiss cyclist Marc Hirschi along with him.

Britain's Adam Yates kicked away from the peloton 2km after the initial surge and soon found himself in the hunt for the stage win - picking up bonus seconds near the end of the race after passing through a bonus gate ahead of Alaphilippe and then Hirschi.

Coming into a strong headwind and being caught quickly by the peloton, Alaphilippe took advantage of the slipstream of a struggling Yates to hit the front, holding off Hirschi in a photo finish for the win.

Alaphilippe's win today follows on from his stage three victory at last year's Tour de France - and observers believe he is one of France's best chances of winning the overall title.

The host nation has not won cycling's most prestigious road race since 1985, when Bernard Hinault won his fifth and last title.

Deceuninck-QuickStep rider Alaphilippe now leads the general classification thanks to his stage win ahead of Mitchelton-Scott's Yates by four seconds with Team Sunweb's Hirschi sitting seven seconds off the yellow jersey.

Belgium's Greg van Avermaet led the peloton chase finishing just one second behind Yates, followed by Colombia's Sergio Higuita in the top five.

There were nine teams represented in the top 10, with Trek-Segafredo's Bauke Mollema, Astana's Alexey Lutsenko, UAE Team Emirates' Tadej Pogacar, Bora-Hansgrohe's Maximilian Schachmann and Higuita's EF Pro Cycling teammate Alberto Bettiol completing the top positions.

Higuita currently sits fourth in the standings, 17 seconds behind the leader along with an array of riders who finished in the chasing pack.

Overnight leader Alexander Kristoff was far off the pace, never looking as if he would retain his jersey for another day and finishing over 28 minutes behind the leader.

The top 37 on the stage were all within 20 seconds of the lead, keeping themselves close to the lead in the general classification.

Some of the Tour's favourites for 2020 were in that pack including Colombia's Nairo Quintana, France's Thibaut Pinot and Slovenia's Primož Roglič.

Other top names in the mix included The Netherlands Tom Dumoulin, Spain's Mikel Landa and last year's Tour winner, Colombia's Egan Bernal.

Dumoulin recovered from a crash to sit back in the front end of the general classification and looks to have come through stage two relatively unscathed.

Belgium's Wout van Aert had a difficult day, finishing more than two minutes down in 46th place, but still remains close enough to mount a challenge later in the three week race.

Tomorrow's stage will take the Tour away from the south coast on a 123-mile route from Nice to Sisteron - with the third day regarded as a flat stage.