LILLE, France — Jasper Philipsen gained the opening stage of the Tour de France in a dash to the road whereas defending champion Tadej Pogačar completed safely on Saturday.
Pogačar is trying to win the showcase race for a fourth time on the again of nice kind this season.
Stage 1 took riders on a 185-kilometer (115-mile) route beginning and ending within the northern metropolis of Lille.
Philipsen’s Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate Mathieu van der Poel put him in an incredible place to tug clear within the final 100 meters and win by a transparent margin for his tenth Tour stage win.
Eritrean bicycle owner Biniam Girmay was second and Norwegian Søren Wærenskjold third.
Pogačar and two-time Tour champion Jonas Vingegaard of Denmark had been within the entrance group — ending 18th and twentieth, respectively — however didn’t contest the dash. All completed in 3 hours, 53 minutes.
Double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel narrowly averted after about 50 kilometers a crash which unseated Italian rider Filippo Ganna. He continued however later deserted, as did Swiss rider Stefan Bissegger, caught in a separate crash.
There was one other crash later when Frenchmen Benjamin Thomas and Mattéo Vercher contested bonus factors for the very best climber’s jersey. Thomas overtook Vercher on the line on the brief cobblestoned ascent however misplaced management of his entrance wheel and swerved into him. They each fell however obtained up and continued.
Sunday’s second stage is a barely hilly 209-kilometer trek from Lauwin-Planque to Boulogne-sur-Mer in northern France and will once more favor sprinters.
This month’s race stays in France for the length, with no levels overseas as in earlier years. It ends on July 27 in Paris.