"The start of a big week" - Tadej Pogacar reacts to dramatic opening stage at the 2025 Tour de France

Stage 1 of the 2025 Tour de France had everything. Crashes, echelons and time gaps between the GC contenders in the end. As you might expect however, Tadej Pogacar was imperious in his riding, safely navigating the first stage, and always keeping himself at the front of the bunch.

"Oh yeah, it was a hectic day, just as we thought," UAE Team Emirates - XRG's world champion reflected in his post-stage interview afterwards, happy to just get through the chaos unscathed. "There were some splits in the end and me and the team, we were in front. Thanks to a good job from all the team, from all day, from kilometre zero, we were in the front and it paid off for us in the end."

As people always say, you can't win the Tour de France in the first week, but you can lose it. For Pogacar, getting through stage 1 was a positive tick in the column. "I'm just happy day one is done and we can move on," concludes the Slovenian. "The start of a big week. Nine days to go to rest day and then we go from then on. But first we focus on these nine days."