photo credits @ Le Tour
Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) won a chaotic opening stage of the Tour de France today, after he emerged victorious ahead of Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) and Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X Mobility) in a reduced bunch sprint in Lille, handing the Belgian rider the first yellow jersey of this year’s French Grand Tour.
Meanwhile, Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis) claimed the mountains classification after winning two points from the day’s breakaway.
Race Highlights
Mattéo Vercher (Total Energies) was the first attacker of the day, escaping the peloton as soon as the flag dropped. However, the French rider was quickly joined at the front by Jonas Rutsch (Intermarché-Wanty), Matis Le Berre (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Thomas.
From there, the quintet rapidly pushed its lead out to 2 minutes, while Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) and Silvan Dillier (Alpecin-Deceuninck) led the chase.
After a fierce battle dominated by Thomas for the first KOM point of the race (at Côte de Notre-Dame-de-Lorette), the breakaway group’s gap stretched out to 2’25’’.
As the pace increased in the peloton, riders like Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), Stefan Bissegger (Decathlon AG2R La Modiale) and Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek) got dropped after 50 kilometers of racing, while the early attackers were caught before the first intermediate sprint, which was won by Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) ahead of Bryan Coquard (Cofidis), Girmay and Philipsen.
After the sprint, Vercher went on the attack again, only to be followed by Thomas once more, subsequently opening up a slight gap of around 1 minute as they approached second categorized ascent of the day, Mont Cassel, with Thomas being the first to summit. However, in a bizarre clashing, the duo collided at the summit, sending both riders to the ground.
In the meantime, Soudal Quick-Step put the hammer down with 77 kilometers to go, exploding the peloton that left riders such as Adam and Simon Yates unable to keep pace. Yet, the British twins managed to regain contact with the bunch.
Visma-Lease a Bike led with a fierce pace into the last 20 kilometers, once again causing the peloton to explode, sending Remco Evenepoel, Primoz Roglic and Florian Lipowitz off the back, as well as Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step), Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) and Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike).
Back up front, Alpecin-Deceuninck took control during the fast and furious run into Lille, with Mathieu Van der Poel and Kaden Groves ultimately launching Philipsen into perfect position to seize the stage honors.
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