Domestique Debrief: Tour de France stage 1

The first stage of the 112th Tour de France marked the return of a Grand Départ on French soil after two years. If this first stage in Lille was not the most exciting on paper, the wind and the tension of the peloton made it very interesting to watch. Between the battles for the first jerseys, but also already for the general classification, let’s take a look at what happened today. 

The first attack of this 112th Tour de France came from TotalEnergies as soon as the departure flag was waved by Christian Prudhomme, as could have been expected. Indeed, the young Matteo Vercher was sent up the road, along with four other riders. Most of them were from French teams without a sprinter among the favourites, with Mathis Le Berre (Arkea-B&B Hotels), Bruno Armirail (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) and Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis). The only small surprise of this first day at the front was Biniam Girmay’s teammate Jonas Rutsch, who was the only non-French representative opening the road.

As usual in the first days of a Grand Tour, the battle for the KOM jersey is intense among the first attackers. These five escapers confirmed it on the first hill of the day, the Côte de Notre-Dame de Lorette, where they attacked each other for the sole point given at the top. In the end, Benjamin Thomas managed to beat Matteo Vercher to win the KOM of this Grande Boucle.  

If the day seemed to be going well for the breakaway, it didn’t stay that way for long. 110 kilometres from the finish line, the peloton entered a wide, large road with wind coming from the side. The acceleration of UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Visma-Lease a Bike caused echelons in the main group, and also the end of the adventure for the five men at the front. Unfortunately for him, Florian Lipowitz, the co-leader of Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe, suffered a mechanical problem and had to chase behind the peloton alongside riders such as Lenny Martinez, who had a bad day for his first Grand Tour with Bahrain-Victorious. The peloton finally reformed a few kilometres later, this first attempt being only a warning for those who got trapped.

Before the final battle in Lille, the fastest men of the peloton had the opportunity to test themselves at La Motte-aux-Bois, on the first intermediate sprint of this Tour de France. Though some sprinters such as Tim Merlier decided to rest in the peloton, Jonathan Milan did a small sprint and crossed the line in first place, ahead of Biniam Girmay, Jasper Philipsen and Bryan Coquard. 

Right after this sprint, Matteo Vercher benefited from a calm moment in the peloton to attack again, followed by Benjamin Thomas. The objective of these two riders was Mont Cassel, the next climb listed in the KOM classification. At the top of this cobbled climb that was the theatre of the French championships in 2023, the Cofidis rider managed to overtake his opponent and countryman on the line but slipped and crashed, taking Vercher with him and causing the two French riders to be caught by the peloton. Despite this fall, both of them got back on their bikes and climbed on the podium after the stage, Thomas for the Polka dot jersey and Vercher for the combativity prize. 

On the final climb of the day, the peloton was packed at the top of Mont Noir, and Jonas Vingegaard crossed the line in first place, taking his first point in the KOM classification. 

Unfortunately, the first stage of a Grand Tour often results in a very nervous peloton, causing some crashes. This stage around Lille was no exception, as several riders hit the ground throughout the day. With 132 kilometres to go, the first two unfortunates of the day fell in a corner. Though Sean Flynn (Team Picnic-PostNL) managed to get back on his bike quite quickly, the former ITT World Champion Filippo Ganna (INEOS Grenadiers) took a bit more time to stand back up.

The Italian started the race again but had to quit the Tour a few kilometres later, becoming the first abandon of this edition of the Tour de France. Another very good time trialist had to leave the race early, a few minutes later, as Stefan Bissegger (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) suffered from a crash with Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek) not long after Ganna and Flynn. Though the Belgian was able to continue, the Swiss rider was not able to reach the finish line in Lille and was forced to abandon. 

In the final 20 kilometres, when everyone was preparing for a sprint, Visma-Lease a Bike tried to force a break in the peloton thanks to strong side wind. Jonas Vingegaard himself initiated this movement, quickly causing a split in the peloton, with riders such as Remco Evenepoel, Tim Merlier, Jonathan Milan and Primoz Roglič caught out. The front group, composed of around forty riders, quickly took 30 seconds of advantage over the main peloton and managed to stay at the front until the line.

Despite the small number of riders in the group, the tension was high, even causing the crash of Marijn Van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost) and Ben O’Connor (Jayco AlUla) four kilometres from the line. After the great work of Alpecin-Deceuninck, it was the Uno-X riders who presented themselves first under the Flamme Rouge. In the final metres, Jasper Philipsen cemented the work of his teammates by winning the tenth victory of his career at the Tour de France, ahead of Biniam Girmay and Søren Wærenskjold. This win will also allow the Belgian to wear the yellow jersey for the first time in his career tomorrow. Philipsen is also at the head of the points classification, so his second, Biniam Girmay, will wear the Green jersey tomorrow, while Wærenskjold will be in white. 

The second group arrived thirty seconds later, meaning that a lot of riders lost precious time in the general classification. Among the ones that benefited from this echelon, the two main favourites Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard, but also some other contenders for a top 10 in Paris, such as Enric Mas, Tobias Johannessen, Kevin Vauquelin and Ben O’Connor, despite the crash of the latter in the final kilometres.