While Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) was the highest profile GC rider to lose time on the chaotic opening stage of the Tour de France, several others vying for spots in the top 10 come Paris also saw their hopes take a hit, most notably Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).
Roglič has long had rotten luck at the Tour de France, having crashed out of his last three appearances; however, today was just about positioning, with him, like Evenepoel, missing the split once Visma-Lease a Bike kicked things off with 17km to go.
Worryingly for the five-time Grand Tour winner, none of his Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe teammates made it into the group, and he was left to roll across the line and lose 39 seconds to both Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG). Not a disaster, but another bad day for Roglič and his team.
"The guys were asleep. We talked about that stretch, the wind and the related dangers, but they were surprised," DS Enrico Gasparotto told TuttoBici.
"Tonight there will be nothing to say, I think we are all aware of the opportunity we wasted: Roglič and Lipowitz lost the chance to gain time on Remco. Of course, we learned an important lesson."
Also in the Roglič and Evenepoel group was Pogačar's key climbing domestique João Almeida, who will still likely make up time in the mountains, but won't be as much of a threat having lost time to the Dane.
Visma, despite sparking the move and having a very successful day with Matteo Jorgenson up in front, took a big hit. Giro d'Italia winner Simon Yates suffered an untimely mechanical 75km from home, before struggling for the rest of the stage as he yo-yo'd on and off the back of various groups.
"It was a good start, but not a perfect start. Simon already lost quite a lot of time, because he had a bad day, and he had a really bad moment when he had to change bikes, but we were in front with Jonas and Matteo, so that part was really good," said Visma's head of racing, Grischa Niermann.
"I guess he [Yates] didn't have great legs, and on top of that, he probably had the mechanical at the worst moment, and then you have to invest a lot to come back, and then he struggled in the end, that's a pity.
Vingegaard was disappointed to lose a potential third GC option and attacker: "Of course, it's not nice that Simon lost six minutes, that was a bit of a bump on the road, to be honest."
Yates' twin brother Adam, who is another of Pogačar's climbing train, also had a shocking first day, losing 5:18 and any chance of repeating a podium finish at the Tour. Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious) was the only potential GC rider to lose more time than the Yates brothers – crossing the line 9:11 down in last place.
The chaos looked to have claimed another GC hopeful in Ben O'Connor (Jayco AlUla), who is making his return to the Tour, following a successful 2024 season, which saw him finish fourth in the Giro d'Italia and second in the Vuelta a España.
He came down hard in a crash also involving Marijn van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost), and, had the 5km safe zone rule not been in play, would have lost significant time, crossing the line in 160th. But his result was changed, with the incident occurring just inside 4km to go.
"We expected it to be crazy, in particular, when we saw the wind prediction. The first day of the Tour de France, it's always going to be testing, so it lived up to expectation," said Jayco AlUla DS Matt Hayman.
"Ben obviously did a good job, was there in front with Luka Mezgec, and he was actually trying to stay out of trouble at that moment and sit in that group as it was inside 5km to go.
"They crashed in front of him, and he went over the top. You never want to crash at the Tour de France, but look, it could have been a lot worse, he's got some skin off, and he's obviously a bit banged up, but he gets the same time as that front group, so not a bad start for him on GC."
Ineos Grenadiers too missed the front move, except for British champion Sam Watson, with their leader Carlos Rodríguez losing 39 seconds. Geraint Thomas was with him in that group and could only admit at the finish line: "I should have stopped last year, to be honest," after the chaos.
Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) was also in that group, as was Santiago Buitrago, suffering an early hit to their ambitions, but with many chances still to move back up the standings.
What's clear is that Pogačar and Vingegaard were the big winners of the day, but others also benefited from the superstar move, with Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) and Enric Mas (Movistar) making great starts to their potential overall bids by getting into the lead echelon.
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