Tour de France Week 1

The first week was filled with crashes, breaks and GC action as soon as the flag dropped.

Stage 1 saw an early break of four riders who would attack each other for the KOM points and crash while doing so. They were eventually caught and the peloton took over. Two of the original members would go on the attack again and form a gap before being caught again. Visma Lease a bike would then take over in the crosswinds as echelons were forming, they made a move stick causing a reduced bunch finish won by Jasper Philipsen. Multiple GC favourites and sprinters were caught up in the second group on the road and were unable to contest for the first yellow jersey of the tour.

The second stage saw another breakaway fighting for KOM points. Tadej Pogacar would end the day on 3 points and take the polka dot jersey. Jonas Vingegaard and Pogacar were closing down moves and attacks in the last 15km and would find themselves in another reduced group off the front to contest the win. Mathieu van der Poel would cross the line first and take yellow from his teammate leading the general classification. Pogacar and Vingegaard moved up into second and third respectably maintaining their lead over Evenepoel and Roglic.

Stage 3 had multiple crashes and came down to a bunch sprint won by Tim Merlier with Jasper Philipsen being forced to abandon after a bad crash meaning the end of his green jersey dreams. Mathieu Van Der Poel managed to stay out of trouble to maintain his 4 second lead in the General Classification over Pogacar.

The fourth stage went down to a sprint between Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogacar after the breakaway was caught with the world champion taking the win leaving them on the same GC time. Jonas Vingegaard finished third and narrowly lost out to Van Der Poel meaning he was able to hold on to third overall with his teammate Matteo Jorgenson just behind in fourth.

The first of two time trial stages, an opportunity for GC gaps to grow between the riders. Van Der Poel was always going to lose the jersey but remained in the top ten after the stage. Remco Evenepoel won the stage showing why he is the world TT champion and double Olympic gold medalist. The surprise came from Jonas Vingegaard, after being able to put time into Pogacar in the TT at the Criterium he lost time on GC to his main rival and moved below Evenepoel.

The breakaway managed to win on stage 6 with Ben Healy taking the stage after attacking 40km from the line on flat roads. Mathieu Van Der Poel took back the yellow jersey by 1 second after being part of the break. Visma were the team on the front trying to close the gap after UAE ensured no more riders joined.

After a win for the break the previous day stage 7 saw multiple riders from multiple teams try to go off the front. A group of 5 were let go with Geraint Thomas being the highest on GC at 14 minutes the gap remained around 1:30 with UAE controlling the gap. The top sprinters were dropped going into the last 30km and the stage win went to Tadej Pogacar who beat Jonas Vingegaard on the line to take his second stage this year and reclaim the yellow jersey.

Classification Leaders:

General: Tadej Pogacar

Points: Tadej Pogacar

Mountains: Tim Wellens

Youth: Remco Evenepoel

Teams: Team Visma Lease a Bike

List of Abandons: (DNF Stage 1) Filippo Ganna - INEOS Grenadiers

(DNF Stage 1) Stefan Bissegger - Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team

(DNF Stage 3) Jasper Philipsen - Alpecin-Deceuninck

(DNS Stage 5) Emilien Jeanniere - Team TotalEnergies

(DNS Stage 5) Jasper De Buyst - Lotto

(DNF Stage 7) Mattia Cattaneo - Soudal Quick-Step

(DNF Stage 7) Jack Haig - Bahrain Victorious