Bernal shocked by green jersey as Ineos reveal Tour plan: ‘21 one day races’
Netcompany-Ineos came agonisingly close to a dream start at the 2026 Tour de France, but left Barcelona with mixed emotions after a dramatic opening team time trial. The British team finished second behind Visma | Lease a Bike, missing out on the stage win and the first yellow jersey after Kevin Vauquelin suffered a puncture in the closing kilometres.
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Still, there was consolation for the British team. Egan Bernal pulled on the green jersey after recording the fastest time at the first intermediate checkpoint, under the Tour’s rule that awards the points jersey to the quickest rider at that point in the opening team time trial.
Bernal admitted the moment came as a shock.
“It's a jersey I never thought I'd wear! It's a special race with this new team time trial format, but the team was incredibly strong and finished in an amazing way. Team time trials are super hard, and these guys are crazy, they have so much power! It was a good performance,” Bernal said after the stage in the flashinterview.
Ineos had been fastest at the first checkpoint and looked on course to fight for yellow until Vauquelin’s puncture disrupted their plans before the final climb towards Montjuic. The Frenchman had been one of the team’s main options to take the race lead, but once he dropped out of the line, Filippo Ganna became the rider pushed towards the finish.
Ganna crossed the line in 21:55.20, enough to put Ineos ahead of Lidl-Trek, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe and UAE Team Emirates-XRG, but not enough to beat Visma. Jonas Vingegaard and his team arrived later to take both the stage victory and the first yellow jersey of the race, with Ganna left second overall at just over 7 seconds.
Geraint Thomas, Director of Racing, said the team had been forced to react quickly once their original plan unravelled.
“I said earlier today, you have your plan and it will never go to plan,” Thomas said in quotes collected by CyclingUpToDate. “It’s how you adapt to it.”
“It’s just a shame to lose Kevin with that puncture,” he added. “I feel for him because he hasn’t had much luck this year, but that’s the way it is. I think everyone did what they could in the moment.”
Asked whether Ganna had been the planned back up option, Thomas said the Italian simply took responsibility when the race changed.
“No, he took it on really,” Thomas explained. “We knew he was going to be strong.”
.For Vauquelin, the puncture ended any realistic chance of taking yellow on the opening day, but Thomas insisted it should not change his wider role at the Tour.
“No, I don’t think so,” Thomas said when asked whether the setback would alter the team’s approach. “He was coming here to not worry about the GC and just go after stages. It’s really like our team in general: 21 one-day races.”
Bernal echoed that sense of perspective. Although Ineos missed out on the victory they had targeted, he said the atmosphere inside the team remained positive.
“Of course, we came here to win and we missed out on the victory, but at the same time we're in good shape and the team is in a great vibe. We're definitely going to fight for everything. Every stage is an opportunity. We're here to enjoy the race and we have nothing to lose, so we'll try on every stage.”
Netcompany-Ineos left the opening day without yellow, but with Filippo Ganna second overall, Egan Bernal in green and a sense that their Tour has started with both frustration and promise.
The puncture denied them a shot at the perfect start, but the performance suggested there will be no shortage of opportunities in the stages ahead.
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