The Tour de France begins today with a rare opportunity for the fast men to seize hold of the coveted yellow jersey, on what will no doubt be a frenetic Grand Depart to the year’s most prestigious race.
This year’s Tour is a chance for Tadej Pogacar to make history as only the sixth rider at the Tour de France to claim four yellow jerseys after he triumphed in 2020, 2021 and 2024. “It’s been a great season, so far perfect,” he said this week. “And going here to the Tour as one of the favourites, it's an honour. I’m pleased and I hope I can live up to the expectations.”
He faces the challenge of 2022 and 2023 champion Jonas Vingegaard, with double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel the third favourite at this year’s race. But the opening stage is not expected to be a day for the big general classification contenders to attack, as it has sometimes been in recent years, instead favouring the sprinters in the pack.
Lille hosts both the start and finish of today’s stage 1, which avoids the cobbled sectors of Paris-Roubaix throughout this region – no doubt to the relief of the majority of the peloton.
Three category-four climbs mean the fight for the King of the Mountains jersey also begins today, and the profile of the race suits a doomed breakaway getting some airtime for their jersey sponsors and nabbing some minor points in the polka-dot classification.
But it’s highly unlikely the sprinters’ teams will pass up the opportunity to take yellow on the opening stage of the Tour, for the first time since Alexander Kristoff won in 2020. So expect any escapees to be reeled in well in advance of the wind-up to the flat finish in the city itself, and the likes of Alpecin-Deceuninck, Lidl-Trek, and Soudal Quick-Step to control proceedings in preparation for the battle to the line.
Route map and profile
Start and finish time
The Tour de France officially kicks off at 1.10pm local time (12.10pm BST) and is set to conclude at 5.30pm local time (4.30pm BST).
Prediction
Which sprinter to back? Take your pick: Soudal Quick-Step have essentially brought Tim Merlier, one of the fastest men in the world, to the Tour purely for this stage, with the rest of their squad more focused on Remco Evenepoel’s GC tilt. Wout van Aert is likely to be committing himself to Jonas Vingegaard’s bid for the Tour title, and is better suited to the punchier stages anyway.
Lidl-Trek are protecting Mattias Skjelmose but Jonathan Milan has been on a roll this year - and also has pressure to prove himself as the American squad’s best sprinter, after Mads Pedersen lit up the Giro d’Italia with four stage wins.
Last year’s green jersey winner Biniam Girmay has had a leaner season so far but will be hungry to back up that phenomenal performance, but it’s hard to look past the impeccable lead-out train of Alpecin-Deceuninck and their sprinter Jasper Philipsen. But it’s the first day of the Tour and anything could happen...
