Here’s the report from the opening stage.
An eventful first stage was won by 🇳🇴 Kristoff as he sprinted ahead to claim Yellow!
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) August 29, 2020
🎬 Relive the final kilometre!
Une première étape mouvementée remportée par 🇳🇴 Kristoff, qui décroche le premier Maillot Jaune au sprint !
🎬 Revivez le dernier kilomètre#TDF2020 pic.twitter.com/spt3g058tu
Kristoff in yellow: Alexander Kristoff takes the yellow jersey for the first time in his long career. “There’s going to be some sore bodies on the start line tomorrow,” says Peter Kennaugh on ITV. Team Ineos riders Pavel Sivakov and Andrey Amador are those who hurt themselves today, while George Bennett from Jumbo-Visma also took a spill.
🇫🇷 @ThibautPinot crosses the line surrounded by his teammates and with a ripped jersey.
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) August 29, 2020
🇫🇷 Entouré de ses équipiers, Thibaut Pinot franchit la ligne avec l'épaule droite touchée.#TDF2020 pic.twitter.com/sZVG5TQ2b8
Parish notice: The race organisers have decided that all of the timings for today’s stage will be taken at the three kilometre from the finish mark.
Stage 1 top 10 finishers
- 1. Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) 3hr 46min 23sec
- 2. Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo
- 3. Cees Bol (Team Sunweb)
- 4. Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick-Step)
- 5. Peter Sagan (SVK) Bira-Hansgrohe
- 6. Elia Viviani (Cofidis)
- 7. Giacomo Nizzolo (NTT)
- 8. Bryan Coquard (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept)
- 9. Anthony Turgis (Total Direct Energie)
- 10. Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo)
🏆 🇳🇴 @Kristoff87 wins the first stage! 🏆
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) August 29, 2020
🏆 🇳🇴 @Kristoff87 remporte cette première étape ! 🏆#TDF2020 #TDFunited pic.twitter.com/yP7w9xtwxi
That finish: Kristoff came from behind to win by more than a bike-length, with Peter Sagan unable to mount any sort of challenge despite being in a great position to do so.
“I felt really strong in the final kilometres, I found a good wheel and I knew I was going to win. I was sitting on Sagan for a long time. At the end I was too strong and that was wonderful for me. My run-in to this Tour has not been great and I had no results to show. I was also banged up but it didn’t affect me to do.”
Kristoff wins: A frenetic day’s racing ends in victory for Alexander Kristoff. Sam Bennett appeared to get boxed in in the closing stages. We’re still waiting for a replay of the final dash for the line. It’s been a miserable day for many of the riders - all those caught up in the most recent crash are limping over the line in dribs and drabs.
Alexander Kristoff wins!
The veteran UAE Team Emirates sprinter rides the wheels to pull off something of a shock and win the opening stage of the 2020 Tour de France.
The finish: Sam Bennett is boxed in and has to check.
1km to go: The leaders go under the one kilometre to go kite.
3km to go: There’s a big crash in the back half of the peloton, with up to 20 or more riders going down at speed. Thibaut Pinot is one of them – the crash happened inside the final three kilometres so the riders will all get the same time as the main bunch.
5km to go: The road is wide, four lanes wide, as the riders jockey for position ahead of the finish. Sam Bennett, Peter Sagan, Alexander Kristoff and Giacomo Nizzolo are all well placed.
6km to go: Deceuninck- Quick-Step have Irish sprinter Sam Bennett in a good position ahead of the lead-out.
7km to go: Having led the peloton along for kilometres, Tony Martin starts going backwards. Robert Gesink takes over for Jumbo Visma.
10km to go: The peloton is nicely bunched with all the major sprinters nicely positioned in their respective trains as we enter the final 10 kilometres of the first stage. NTT sprinter Giacomo Nizzolo is the exception to the rule, Edvald Boasson Hagen being the only teammate he has with him. Peter Sagan’s Bora-Hansgrohe are lined up nicely, preparing to ride a finish to put Peter Sagan at the front near the finish line.
15km to go: Cosnefroy’s lead is reduced to six seconds. At the back of the field, George Bennett is weaving his way through the race cars and is about to latch on to the back of the bunch.
18km to go: Deceuninck-Quick-Step are controlling the front of the peloton, hoping to reel in Cosnefroy and set up a sprint finish for Sam Bennett. Cosnefroy has a 17 second lead over the bunch.
20km to go: AG2R La Mondiale rider Benoit Cosnefroy attacks off the front of the bunch and quickly opens a gap of 14 seconds. He’s a good time trial rider and the teams of the main sprinters will need to keep an eye on him.
25km to go: “Having a crash on the first day of a Grand Tour is horrible, because the first week is stressful enough already,” says David Millar on ITV. There are no end of riders who have got off to a bad start today, the worst affected being George Bennett (Jumbo-Visma) and Pavel Sivakov (Ineos), who have come a cropper three times between them this afternoon and will be finishing today’s stage on their own.
29km to go: The peloton remains fairly tightly bunched as the riders prepare to get their ducks in a row for what seems an inevitable sprint finish.
33km to go: The peloton is meandering along at a leisurely 38km per hour, taking no risks. “This is effectively a riders’ strike,” says race commentator Ned Boulting on ITV.
Updated
34km to go: Ineos rider Pavel Sivakov is still riding off the back of the bunch following his two crashes this afternoon.
39km to go: After a very eventful, stressful afternoon’s racing for the peloton, there are less than 40 kilometres to go as the riders enjoy the relative calm before what promises to be a serious storm of a sprint finish on Nice’s Promenade Des Anglais.
40km to go: Nairo Quintana was one of many fallers today. Here’s footage of his spill ...
C'est Nairo Quintana qui est tombé pour Arkéa avec Lukas Postberger (Bora). #TDF2020 pic.twitter.com/yire2tPGdZ
— Louis Ltg (@LtgCycling) August 29, 2020
41km to go: Caleb Ewan has rejoined the peloton, having been led back by Jasper De Buyst and another of his Lotto Soudal team-mates.
That Lopez crash: The Astana rider was quite lucky as he was going at a fair pelt and narrowly avoided hitting a low wall with a potentially long drop on the other side.
It’s absolute carnage in the rain at the Tour De France. More crashes on stage one than in most years of the entire race. Crazy. #TDF2020 pic.twitter.com/lw6mGNuN3b
— Simon Clancy (@SiClancy) August 29, 2020
🌧️ @SupermanlopezN slips in a turn at the head of the peloton. He changes bike and he sets off again.
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) August 29, 2020
🌧️ Miguel Angel Lopez a perdu l'adhérence dans un virage alors qu'il était en tête du peloton. Il a changé de vélo et est reparti.#TDF2020 pic.twitter.com/qOaMrddMFE
Looking at the issues today I wonder if riders started with higher pressures in tyres not expecting rain
— William Fotheringham (@willfoth) August 29, 2020
46km to go: It’s game on again as three Astan riders sprint off the front of the bunch. One of them, Miguel Anguel Lopez, loses his back wheel out from under him and control of his bike, skids off the wet road and into a sign post. He’s OK, but needs a new bike. Tour favourite Primoz Roglic gives Lopez’s team-mate Omar Fraile a bollocking and tells him to slow down. The road is so wet ... covered in surface water.
48km to go: Costa Rican rider Andrey Amador, who rides for Ineos, is having a very unhappy 34th birthday. Having suffered a crash earlier, he’s now adrift of the peloton again after suffering a mechanical.
50km to go: Sam Bennett is about to regain contact with the bunch, who have slowed down on the descent to let various fallers catch up with them. Caleb Ewan and John Degenkolb remain adrift.
54km to go: The breakaway has been caught and the peloton are taking a bit of a breather. I’m going to take one too and will be back in five minutes.
King of the Mountains: Michael Schär takes the second of two sets of two KOM points available on the Côte de Rimiez today.
Whoever of he and Fabien Grellier crosses the finish line first today will take the King of the Mountains jersey.
58km to go: Team Jumbo-Visma move their riders to the front of the bunch that is about to swallow up the breakaway. At the back of the field, NTT rider Giacomo Nizzolo is visibly struggling and being pushed along by a team-mate. He doesn’t appear to have crashed, but is really struggling.
Intermediate sprint result
- 1. Michael Schär
- 2. Cyril Gautier
- 3. Fabien Grellier
- 4. Peter Sagan
- 5. Matteo Trentin
- 6. Sam Bennett
- 7. Alexander Kristoff
- 8. Bryan Coquard
- 9. Luka Mezgec
- 10. Chris Juul Jensen
- 11. Daniel Oss
- 12. Nicolas Edet
- 13. Edward Theuns
- 14. Gregor Mühlberger
- 15. Michal Kwiatkowski
63km to go: Stage favourite Caleb Ewan is also out the back of the field after crashing. Our leading trio drop Fabien Grellier. Michael Schar (CCC) and Cyril Gautier (B&B) lead the stage as they tackle the second and final climb of the day. There’s an awful lot going on.
64km to go: The gap between pour three-man breakaway and the bunch is down to 30 seconds. Pavel Sivakov from Team Ineos is pedalling along four minutes behind the bunch and looks throughly disillusioned after his two crashes. Is he going to quit?
67km to go: David De La Cruz, Luisleon Sanchez, Mikel NIeve and Andrey Amador are among to those to have gone down in that most recent crash.
69km to go: There’s another crash in the peloton on the Preminade Des Anglais, where today’s stage will finish, with a lot of riders hitting the deck hard. More on that when they’ve sorted themselves out. This is a seriously attritional start to this year’s Tour.
70km to go: The riders are back on the Promenade Des Anglais in Nice. Team Ineos rider Pavel Sivakov has fallen for the second time. Having received medical treatment to the right side of his body following his first fall, Egan Bernal’s mountain domestique is now receiving treatment to the left side of his body. He looks seriously fed up with life.
87km to go: Julian Alaphilippe misjudges a bend as he tries to bridge the long gap between himself and the bunch and almost goes off the road. He sticks out a leg to help keep his balance.
90km to go: Deceuninck-Quick-Step rider Julian Alaphilippe suffers a mechanical when his front wheel seizes up and needs a bike change. He has to wait pateitnly at the side of the road for his team car to get to him. As the rain continues to hammer down, the three stage leaders have a lead of 1min 39sec.
Lizzie Deignan pips Marianne Vos to win La Course in Nice sprint drama. @jeremycwhittle's full report https://t.co/5qIZWyFLoZ #LaCourse
— Guardian sport (@guardian_sport) August 29, 2020
94km to go: Team Ineos rider Pavel Sivakov is at the back of the field, making his way through the team cars with blood visible on his arm after hitting the deck in these treacherous conditions.
Mitchelton–Scott rider Daryl Impey has also come a cropper. The peloton are 1min 10sec behind the breakaway group and moving at snail’s pace as they tackle a series of hairpins on a road covered in surface water.
Jeremy Whittle is reporting on this year’s Tour for the Guardian. Here he wonders if Groupama-FDJ rider Thiubaut Pinot can end France’s 30-year wait for a winner.
102km to go: It’s raining heavily and the road is very slippery as the breakaway trio of Michael Schar (CCC), Fabien Grellier (Team Total Direct Energie) and Cyril Gautier (B&B Hotels–Vital Concept) make their way back out the country. They have a lead of 1min 25sec over the peloton, which is being led by the riders of race favourite Primoz Roglic’s Jumbo-Visma team.
107km: Fabien Grellier takes the first two King of the Mountains points up for grabs on the Category 3 Cote de Rimiez. It’s a climb the riders will tackle again with 59 kilometres of today’s race left to go.
107km to go: The trio in the breakaway tackle a stiff climb, the gap between them and the bunch down to 1min 43sec.
112km to go: The three leaders have crossed the finish line in Nice having completed the first of three loops taking in the centre of the city today.
114km to go: “Everyone has to be up there to be safe: team leaders, sprinters ... everyone,” says Chris Froome on ITV. “Team directors will demand it so there’ll be a lot of fighting to get to the front of the bunch.” The gap between the three leaders and the bunch is 2min 33sec.
A crash: Sam Bennett is the big-name casualty as several riders come down. He looks fit to continue but needs a new bike. “I think they’re in for a potentially treacherous finale today if the roads are wet,” says Chris Froome, who lives just up the road and knows the roads well. “It could blow the race apart.”
More from Chris Froome: “There’ll be blocks of training,” he tells Ned, regarding his preparations. “I’ve got to get some altitude blocks in too, as well as whatever races I’m in.
“I just have to remind myself where I’ve come from in the past 12 months,” he says, referring to his awful crash in last year’s Dauphine. “I was flat on my back for six weeks and only got back on the bike in January. I have to be extremely grateful for all the sport I’ve had in getting here. I’m just hoping to get one solid Grand Tour into my legs this year.”
123km to go: It’s pretty uneventfgul as the peloton meander along behind the three-man breakaway, the gap 2min 15sec. On ITV, Ned Boulting has Chris Froome on the line and the four-times Tour winner says he has “come to terms” with the fact that he is not riding in this year’s Tour. He says the decision that he wouldn’t compete was mutual between himself and Dave Brailsford. He will compete in the Vuelta instead, which starts on 20 October.
132km to go: It’s tipping down iwth rain in Nice, as the three riders in the breakaway put 2min 40sec between themselves and the chasing pack.
So assuming the Tour goes all the way how many times will we see B&B , TDE and CCC in the doomed break ?
— William Fotheringham (@willfoth) August 29, 2020
140km to go: The gap is hovering around the two-minute mark as Michael Schar (CCC), Fabien Grellier (Total Direct Energie) and Cyril Gautier (B&B) head back in towards Nice city centre on the first of their three loops (two small, one big) they’ll complete this afternoon. Gautier’s B&B Hotels-VItal Concept team is one of two teams given wildcards for this year’s Tour. Nairo Quintana and Warren Barguil’s Arkea-Samsic team are the other.
“It’s always complicated to choose,” Prudhomme said when explaining his decision to Ouest France. “Last year, there wasn’t a lot in it. For this summer, I admit that we would have been in difficulty if Total Direct Energie hadn’t already been invited thanks to their UCI ranking last year. And if Israel Cycling hadn’t obtained their WorldTour licence.”
146km to go: The gasp between our breakaway trio and the bunch is now out to 1min 45sec.
Luke Rowe and Tony Martin joking at the front of the bunch, Rowe throws a mock “punch” to reenact the scene that got them both thrown off the race last year
— the Inner Ring (@inrng) August 29, 2020
An email: “A presenter on FR2 has announced a 40% chance of rain this afternoon,” writes Michael Cosgrove. “And Météo France is predicting storms and rain for the Nice area later on. If that happens things could get very hairy indeed and all bets will be off.”
The peloton doesn’t react: The bunch have let the three-man breakaway escape and the gap is already 1min 30sec.
🚩 Wheels are rolling, the #TDF2020 is underway! 🤩
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) August 29, 2020
🚩 Le #TDF2020 est lancé ! 🤩 #TDFunited pic.twitter.com/3FVQHbS5DV
The race is on: Christian Prudhomme gives the signal to the 176 riders to start racing and three of them immediately jump off the front of the bunch. Michael Schar (CCC), Fabien Grellier (Team Total Direct Energie) and Cyril Gautier (B&B Hotels–Vital Concept), take a bow.
Primoz Roglic speaks: Despite sporting bandages to protect injuries he sustained in a crash that ultimately forced him to abandon this year’s Dauphine, Jumbo-Visma rider Primoz Roglic is the hot favourite for this year’s Tour.
He spoke to France Televisions on the start line. “I’m very happy to just start the Tour after my crash at the Dauphiné,” said the Slovenian. “On the way, I’ll see how I go. We’ve waited for a long time for racing to resume this year. Luckily, we’ve had a few races before the Tour and we’re here at the start now. I don’t only watch Egan Bernal as my rival. There are a lot of riders and everyone can take his chance.”
Updated
Still in the neutral zone: The riders have another three kilometres before the flag drops to signal the start of racing in this year’s Tour de France. Tony Martin and breakaway supremo Thomas de Gent are currently chatting at the front of the bunch.
The roll-out is under way
Their face masks off, the cyclists in the peloton roll out from Nice with decidedly socially undistanced crowds of the public lining the streets as they. They’ll have to ride another seven or so kilometres before given the signal to begin racing by Christian Prudhomme.
Updated
British* and Irish riders in this year’s Tour
- Luke Rowe* (Ineos Grenadier)
- Hugh Carty* (EF Pro Cycling
- Connor Swift* (Arkea-Samsic)
- Adam Yates* (Mithelton Scott)
- Dan Martin (Israel Start Up Nation)
- Sam Bennett (Deceuninck–Quick-Step)
- Nicolas Roche (Team Sunweb)
An email: “The French government is saying that the chances of the tour not finishing are ‘very slim’,” writes Mark Schlink. “But there is still a chance it won’t finish.
“So, if it gets called in the middle, who wins? And if it is the person in yellow on the day, how does that affect tactics? If it means everyone is trying to get the yellow jersey early and then hold it, then we are in for an exciting tour- in a glass half full sort of way.”
Well, the fact of the matter is that the Tour organisers have been very vague about what will happen if the race has to be abandoned and have not specified how many stages have to be completed before they will consider declaring a winner.
On ITV, the former British rider Pete Kennaugh has said that unless the Tour finishes in Paris, no winner should be declared. I’m inclined to agree but don’t think there’s a snowball’s chance in hell that the Tour will get anywhere near the Champs-Élysées. I am absolutely astonished it’s starting at all and think the French government will call a halt to it sooner rather than later.
Britain’s Lizzie Deignan wins La Course thriller
Britain’s Lizzie Deignan edged a thrilling sprint finish along the Nice seafront to beat great rival Marianne Vos and win La Course by Le Tour de France this morning.
The hilly 96-km route around the Mediterranean city boiled down to a battle between a leading group of six, also featuring Dutch world champion Annemiek van Vleuten, Katarzyna Niewiadoma, Demi Vollering and Deignan’s Trek Segafredo team mate Lisa Longo Borghini.
As the sprint wound up in the final kilometre along Promenade des Anglais, it looked as though Vos, who out-sprinted Deignan for gold at the London Olympics in 2012, had nailed a second successive victory as she opened up a sizeable gap.
But Dutch great had gone too early and on the long final drag, Monaco-based Deignan dug deep and she surged past on the line. Vollering was third.
La Course by Le Tour, featuring the cream of women’s professional cycling, is the curtain-raiser for the Tour de France which starts later on Saturday in Nice.
The women are still without a multi-stage Tour de France of their own, although support is growing to start one possibly as early as 2022. (PA Sport)
Updated
French government introduces stricter Tour exclusion regulations
French health authorities have introduced stricter regulations for exclusions from the Tour in the event of coronavirus cases. They ruled that a team should be withdrawn if two or more of its members - including riders and support staff – tested positive within seven days, race organisers said on Saturday.
Until now this year’s race had been operating under International Cycling Union (UCI) guidelines which said teams should be excluded if two or more riders were to test positive over the same period.
Despite these tighter controls, the chances of the Tour de France not being completed because of the Covid-19 crisis are very slim, French sports minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said on Saturday.
“On every subject, whether it’s the Tour or anything else we have to be able to adapt, to be able to make decisions depending on the situation,” Blanquer told reporters ahead of the first stage.
“That type of thing could happen but of course I hope that it won’t and I think that it won’t because the Tour organisers have done an extraordinary job. The chances [of the Tour not reaching Paris] are very slim.”
The number of daily cases in France has been rising steadily in recent weeks, casting a menacing shadow over the three-week event which is starting nine weeks later than originally scheduled. PA Sport
Race director Christian Prudhomme on Stage 1: “A rather unfamiliar format perfect for a great popular show: three loops in the hinterland of Nice including one to be covered twice giving the spectators an opportunity to see the pack go by all along the day before possibly witnessing the first act of the great battle between the sprinters. A bunched sprint is indeed expected at the end of the long final straight on the Promenade des Anglais.”
William Fotheringham's team-by-team guide
Chris Froome will be a conspicuous absentee from this year’s Tour, as will his Ineos team-mate Geraint Thomas. With Mark Cavendish also sitting this year’s Tour out, amid speculation he may never get to add to his tally of 30 stage wins, Will Fotheringham gives the lowdown on who will be riding in this year’s Grand Boucle.
Stage One: Nice Moyen Pays to Nice (156km)
From Will Fotheringham’s stage-by-stage guide: “Two loops north of Nice over a serious-looking climb, the Côte de Rimiez, with a finish on the Promenade des Anglais; with 38km between the last bit of uphill and the finish. There is time for the peloton to regroup if it splits on the climb. This stage will favour sprinters who can climb a bit such as the Italian Elia Viviani.
