Echelons shake up Tour de France opening stage: Philipsen takes yellow, Evenepoel loses time

The big moment is finally here: the Tour de France has begun! Almost every rider, fan, and everyone involved has been eagerly anticipating this moment all season. Tadej Pogacar hopes to defend his title and win his fourth Tour de France, but he will have to face Jonas Vingegaard, who is more motivated than ever to defeat his Slovenian rival. Meanwhile, Remco Evenepoel hopes to capitalize on the conflict...

Before we get into the GC battle, the first stage is one for the fast men. The flat stage to and from Lille was a perfect opportunity for the sprinters to grab a rare yellow jersey. That made for a great start list: Jonathan Milan, Tim Merlier, Jasper Philipsen, Biniam Girmay... They were all hoping for a perfect start to the Tour de France.

The first stage of the Tour de France should normally be a huge battle for the breakaway, not only for the publicity but also because the polka dot jersey was at stake, of course. That battle never took form: Jonas Rutsch (Intermarché-Wanty), Mathis Le Berre (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis), and Mattéo Vercher (TotalEnergies) immediately broke away and the battle was already over. The peloton kept their legs still; the five were good to go.

This made for a nice quiet moment, which the riders took advantage of with a mass pit stop. But the peace was short-lived: the pace picked up in the second hour. Thomas won the first mountain sprint, but behind him, the speed was increasing. Things became more nervous, which led to the first crashes: Filippo Ganna (INEOS Grenadiers) and Sean Flynn (Picnic PostNL) were the first victims, and the Italian was in pain.

He got back on his bike later and returned to the pack after half an hour, but before he could do so, two more riders crashed. Stefan Bissegger (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) went down and was briefly dazed after hitting his head. Thibau Nys also appeared to have been involved, so the Belgian from Lidl-Trek had to give chase. That was not made easy for him because the strong wind meant the pace was extremely high!

Several riders, including the Jayco duo of Mauro Schmid and Luke Plapp, Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe's top rider Florian Lipowitz, and the recently crashed Nys and Bissegger, were dropped. Teams such as Visma | Lease a Bike and UAE Team Emirates - XRG were battling it out at the front of the pack. It was push and shove, and the leading group was caught with more than 100 kilometers to go.

An intermediate sprint followed, which was won by Jonathan Milan. The Italian from Lidl-Trek struck the first blow in the battle for the green jersey, leaving Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty), and Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) behind him. After that sprint, Vercher accelerated again. Thomas, who saw him as a threat to the polka dot jersey, reacted, and so there were two frontrunners again.

If Thomas won the sprint on Mont Cassel - the next climb - he would secure the polka dot jersey. Vercher obviously didn't want that to happen, so it turned into a spectacular show. A millimeter sprint on the cobbled climb was the result, and Thomas was ultimately the strongest. However, he crashed hard at the finish line, taking Vercher with him. Their adventure was over, but Thomas would still be able to start in the polka dot jersey on Sunday.

The pace skyrocketed on the descent, sparking an echelon alarm. But calm returned to the peloton, allowing the riders at the back to catch up except for Ganna, who had given up after an hour or two. He was suffering too much from his crash and had to abandon the race. A little later, the race also ended for Bissegger, who was unable to continue. Two time trialists abandoned the race.

There was a quiet phase, but the wind continued to play a role. With about 20 kilometers to go, it was Visma | Lease a Bike that opened the throttle. Jonas Vingegaard himself pushed hard, creating a significant split. We had echelons! Tadej Pogacar, Mathieu van der Poel, Kaden Groves, Jasper Philipsen, and Biniam Girmay were among those who made it through, but Jonathan Milan, Tim Merlier, and Remco Evenepoel did not. The gap quickly grew to 20 seconds and even 30 seconds: was this already the first battle?

Alpecin-Deceuninck seemed to have a great opportunity, so they pushed on. They were assisted by Uno-X, which had three important men with them, including GC rider Tobias Halland Johannessen and sprinters Søren Wærenskjold and Stian Fredheim. Other sprinters who joined were Paul Penhoët (Groupama-FDJ) and Marijn van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost).

For a moment, it looked as if Groves and Van der Poel were riding away together: together with Tiesj Benoot and Tim Wellens, they opened up a gap. However, while the Alpecin-Deceuninck men wanted to continue, the others did not. As a result, the first peloton caught up with the four, after which the Roodhooft brothers' team switched gears. On paper, they had Philipsen, the fastest man in the front group. Alpecin-Deceuninck took responsibility, but Uno-X also managed to set up a nice train. Van den Berg crashed in the final sprint and could forget his yellow dream: Ben O'Connor tumbled over him but lost no time thanks to the 5-kilometer rule.

After the work of the GC teams, it was up to the sprint trains. Wærenskjold's train was set up early, but Alpecin-Deceuninck came through later. Van der Poel did it in his characteristic style, after which Groves took over. He delivered Philipsen perfectly, who secured the yellow jersey.