2025 Tour de France Stage 1 Report:
The primary stage of the 2025 promised pleasure with a possible dash end and it didn’t disappoint. The mixture of the stress of the tour, the battle for the primary jerseys and large crowds led to a day of very quick racing, crashes, winds and time losses for sure favorites!
Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) took his tenth Tour de France stage victory on the opening day in Lille and his first ever yellow jersey after an motion packed stage.
The way it occurred
On the zero kilometer mark of this principally flat 185km stage, the primary assault of the race was launched by Mattéo Vercher (Whole Energies) and he was rapidly joined by Jonas Rutsch (Intermarché-Wanty), Matis Le Berre (Arkéa-B&B Motels), Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis).
A reasonably flat day within the saddle for the peloton with 185km and three small Cat. 4 climbs
These 5 had the honour of forming the break of the day however they have been by no means capable of create a major hole as nerves within the peloton with the large GC groups consistently transferring their leaders ahead saved the velocity excessive. With winds of as much as 35kph predicted UAE, Visma, Soudal and the like have been taking no probabilities in any respect.
In the meantime on the rear of the peloton Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) and Sean Flynn (Picnic PostNL) had the unhealthy luck of being the primary to fall at this years’ race. Each managed to remount and rejoin the peloton however sadly for Ganna he couldn’t end the stage and ended up abandoning 50km later. He can be considered one of two powerhouse time-triallists to desert on account of a crash with Stefan Bissegger (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) additionally abandoning later within the stage after a crash with Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek) who was capable of remount and end the stage.
The dash for the primary climb of the day was fought out amongst the break and after a extremely contested dash it was Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis) who took the one KOM level on provide. He would want to win one other of the 2 class 4 climbs in the remainder of the stage to take the jersey on the finish of the day although however that wasn’t wanting potential because the break was swept up earlier than the 2nd climb with 105km of the race nonetheless to go.
The peloton might now contest the intermediate dash and it was Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) who took most factors forward of Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) & Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty).
The peloton then took a minute to relaxation after the dash and Mattéo Vercher (Whole Energies) who was within the unique break attacked once more solo. Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis) took off after him 2 minutes later and the 2 Frenchmen quickly joined up and headed off to the cobbled climb of the Mont Cassel collectively to struggle for the one level on provide.
It was on this cobbled climb that one of many craziest Class 4 sprints ever seen in Le Tour occurred with their rear wheels bouncing round on the cobbles and fatigue and lactic acid screaming of their legs the French duo launched for the road….
Growth! Benjamin Thomas misplaced management of his bike along with his throw for the road and fell to the bottom taking the unfortunate Vercher with him. Thomas acquired the purpose although and nobody can say that he didn’t give it his all!
With the 2 breakaway riders on the bottom the peloton rapidly caught them and the race was all collectively once more as they hit the brief descent. After the descent varied teams acquired dropped within the crosswinds, Simon Yates modified bikes and was out the again and Lenny Martinez (Bahrain) seemed horrible and was getting dropped each time the street went up. The stress was clearly on the faces of the riders and even with 60kms nonetheless to go the probabilities of an enormous cut up within the bunch was wanting very seemingly.
Surprisingly it was the Visma-Lease A Bike squad who have been making an attempt to separate issues with Vingegaard himself placing within the efforts on the entrance of the peloton and with 18km to go a real cut up within the peloton fashioned. Enrique Mas (Movistar), Ben O’Connor (Jayco) and the 2 huge GC favorites of Pogacar and Vingegaard made the cut up however Evenopoel & Roglic didn’t.
Additionally lacking from the entrance group was the large favourite for the stage, Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) and so Alpecin-Deceuninck drove the entrance group as probably the most nicely represented group (6 riders) within the 41 robust entrance group.
The hole rapidly grew to 30 seconds and it was clear that the stage can be fought out between these entrance 41 – who have been diminished to 39 when EF’s sprinter, Marijn van den Berg crashed closely on a speed-bump and took Ben O’Connor down with him. Fortunately for O’Connor they have been inside the brand new 5km saftey zone and they’d be credited with the identical time because the winner.
Who would that winner be although with the likes of fastmen Girmay, Philipsen and Ackerman within the entrance group ? In the long run the teamwork of the Alpecin boys proved to be too robust with an ideal lengthy leadout by Van der Poel after which Groves giving Jasper Philipsen a transparent run to the road. Philipsen gained simply by a few bike lengths over Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) and Soren Waerenskjold (Uno-X Mobility and would get to drag on the well-known Maillot Jaune tonight – his first ever.
An ideal day for the Alpecin squad, a poor day for Roglic & Evenpoel (39 second loss) and a horrible day for Ganna and Bissegger. What’s going to tomorrow’s hillier stage deliver? Hold it tuned to PEZ for all the newest.
Tour de France Stage 1 Outcome:
1 Philipsen Jasper Alpecin-Deceuninck 03:53:11
2 Girmay Biniam Intermarché-Wanty + 00
3 Wærenskjold Søren Uno-X Mobility + 00
4 Turgis Anthony Crew TotalEnergies + 00
5 Trentin Matteo Tudor Professional Biking Crew + 00
6 Russo Clément Groupama-FDJ + 00
7 Penhoët Paul Groupama-FDJ + 00
8 Jorgenson Matteo Crew Visma | Lease a Bike + 00
9 Mayrhofer Marius Tudor Professional Biking Crew + 00
10 Watson Sam INEOS Grenadiers + 00
Tour de France General After Stage 1:
01 Philipsen Jasper Alpecin-Deceuninck 03:53:01
02 Girmay Biniam Intermarché-Wanty + 04
03 Wærenskjold Søren Uno-X Mobility + 06
04 Turgis Anthony Crew TotalEnergies + 10
05 Trentin Matteo Tudor Professional Biking Crew + 10
06 Russo Clément Groupama-FDJ + 10
07 Penhoët Paul Groupama-FDJ + 10
08 Jorgenson Matteo Crew Visma | Lease a Bike + 10
09 Mayrhofer Marius Tudor Professional Biking Crew + 10
10 Watson Sam INEOS Grenadiers + 10
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