DISCUSSION Tour de France Stage 1 | The craziest start to the Tour? Evenepoel and Roglic out of the fight for yellow?

Stage 1 of the 2025 Tour de France delivered high drama from the start, with Jasper Philipsen powering to victory in a reduced bunch sprint and claiming the first Maillot Jaune. Biniam Girmay finished second, while general classification contenders Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic lost significant time due to a late split in the peloton.

The day began with an early breakaway of five riders, but sprint teams kept the gap tight, unwilling to allow any surprises. Tension in the peloton led to several crashes, Filippo Ganna was the most affected and eventually abandoned the race.

In the final 20km, Vingegaard and Visma used the crosswinds split the peloton, and blow the race apart. Key sprinters and GC riders were left behind, including Milan, Merlier, Roglic, and Evenepoel.In the final sprint, Philipsen launched early and held off Girmay for the win. The Belgian now leads the Tour, while the battle for yellow has already seen major shifts on day one.

But what did our writers think about the action?

On site it was at times hard to keep up with what was happening but all-in-all a very satisfying first day of the race. We've had high speeds and a lot of tension coming from the crosswinds... We got actual crosswinds with very serious implications for the overall classification, where Visma looked to make the difference on Pogacar.

They did good, they have a team to attack outside the mountains a lot, but Pogacar responded promptly. Very few riders in the front group and I give a special shout out to Enric Mas who was perhaps the big winner of the day GC-wise and has truly gotten himself in the podium fight right from day 1.The crash between Benjamin Thomas and Mattéo Vercher gave us the drama, and in what way... Those bikes were all over the place, and that is the reason why I never sprint on a road bike in cobblestones! I could see it happening seconds before, I feared - and so did everyone at the Tour's press room, where a collective "WOAH" came out of dozens of mouths.

The echelons happened and Alpecin, with a team fully focused on stage wins and sprints, has taken advantage of it and thrived. They had their full leadout and then used it to perfection, delivering Jasper Philipsen to a great - and deserved - win. Jonathan Milan and Tim Merlier (not to mention someone like Remco Evenepoel), nowhere to be seen, which was rather shocking taking into consideration the size of the first group.

Well. we didnt get to see who is the best sprinter afterall. We did see who has the train though. Alpecin looks to be the #1 train to Bea, now up to Jasper to finish the job. Top marks for Girmay aswell who looked to be off the whole year and he put on a nice show today. I was not expecting breaks on the peloton today, specially not with so many GC guys involved including Remco Evenepoel who is regarded as one of the best rouleurs nowadays. Bottom line, exciting start for a Tour for which i have high expectations.

What a way to start the Tour de France. Yes, we knew that the terrain was ideal for seeing echelons, crashes, and splits in the peloton. What we didn’t know was how crazy the stage would turn out to be.

Just 33 riders arrived in the front group at the bunch sprint, and very few were GC contenders. Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Matteo Jorgenson and Enric Mas were the only guys surviving in the chaos.

This stage should be a wake-up call for those GC aspirants not making it to that front group. Races like this are not won on day 1, but they can be lost on a day like today. If not, tell that to Filipo Ganna and Stefan Bisseger, the main victims of this carnage who were forced to abandon. For example, I didn't understand why Red Bull Bora's domestiques weren't pulling in the second group for Roglic and Lipowitz. Were Jordi Meeus and Danny van Poppel saving their legs to sprint against Jonathan Milan for the 40th place? Bora has technically come to the tour with GC as the main objective, but today that didn't seem the case. It had to be Soudal and Lidl -Trek to minimize the losses, while Bora just watched.

There were high expectations for the potential Merlier-Philipsen-Milan sprint, but we will have to wait to see who proves to be the fastest man on Earth. We could only certify that Philipsen is in great shape, he outsprinted Girmay and co. with so much ease. He also got the yellow jersey in the process, but I think tomorrow will be too hard for him to keep it.

As many analysts predicted, we’ve witnessed a classic, old-school start to this Tour de France—very much reminiscent of the ’90s era I experienced with Miguel Induráin. Riders like Alex Zülle have already seen their chances of victory slip away due to crashes or mistakes.

Today, right from the start, Remco Evenepoel looked off his game. You simply can’t begin a Tour de France so unfocused, failing to stay on the wheels of Vingegaard or Pogacar when it was crucial. Carlos Rodríguez, the INEOS leader, also fell short, as did Red Bull BORA, who never managed to position either Primož Roglič or Florian Lipowitz at the front.

Movistar Team and Enric Mas delivered a surprise. The Telefónica squad hasn’t often featured prominently at the front lately, but today they stayed alert, helping their leader gain important seconds—especially considering the stage 5 time trial, which suits him well.

Visma executed a smart strategy: they set the pace early to open a gap, then eased off to conserve energy while maintaining their advantage. Meanwhile, Pogacar and UAE Team appeared only partially attentive—the time lost by Joao Almeida is definitely a setback.