A scenic start and a sporting finish. We’ll see if Mathieu van der Poel can match Tadej Pogačar.
Stage 1 Review: the sun was out and so was the public. Plenty of teams were trying new cooling methods at the start, Netcompany-Ineos placed their forearms in troughs of cold water; Alpecin-PremierTech sucked frozen popsicles.
Come the finish plenty got a cold shower after their plans came unstuck. Groupama-FDJ set the fastest time for a while but suffered a crash with Clément Berthet injured and out of the Tour. Netcompany wobbled when Egan Bernal started to sit on, then Kévin Vauquelin punctured before Ganna stormed to the finish but they’d prove eight seconds short. The Frenchman was absent while his team mates sat on the hotseats, perhaps screams of despair could be heard coming from the team bus?
Movistar saw Cian Uijtdebroeks cramp, he’s almost two minutes down on GC already. RedBull’s leadership issue isn’t settled but Evenepoel rode away, kein Lipo-suction with the German unable hold the wheel and giving up 16 seconds.
UAE shed riders mid-course, Nils Politt was on Pogačar’s wheel and paid for it, rinsed in lactic acid after eight minutes. It meant Pogačar launched into the Montjuic climbs with a a deficit he couldn’t make up despite being the fastest in the finale to don the polka-dot jersey. A headline loss but relative the fitness test suggests advantage Slovenia.
Lidl-Trek did well but no fairy tale for Barcelona’s son Juan Ayuso, 15 seconds off the pace and derailed because Mathias Skjelmose saddle rails snapped when he should have been Ayuso’s lead out.
Visma-LAB won the stage and visibly looked the most cohesive, retaining more riders later on in the course by resting them on the first part. The stage win and above all Vingegaard back in yellow for the first time since 2023, an old acquaintance renewed.
It marked a thrilling stage. The “Paris-Nice” format has been fun from a something-to-talk-about-on-a-Tuesday-in-March perspective. This time with the high stakes of the Tour de France it was electrifying.
What to do with the yellow jersey? That’s more a question once Stage 2 is done. If Jonas Vingegaard can keep it then he might be willing to lend it out to the breakaway on Monday’s stage. He’ll have to match Pogačar on this stage to contain the Slovenian more than to keep yellow.
The Route: a spin up the Costa Daurada in two parts, the regular coastal road and then the more scenic Costes del Garraf.
Then it’s inland for the road to Begues, a steady climb on a regular road but it matters for the mountains competition as a second category climb, an opportunity for plenty of riders and teams to take the polka-dot jersey if only for a day.
Probably the hardest phase of the race comes next with some twisty descents and unmarked climbs, all while teams want to be in position and fear it’ll be hard to move up later on.
The Finish: a circuit in Barcelona with the finish again in Montjuïc, it’s across the line twice before a third time for the finish. The finish line is in the same place as Stage 1 but the preceding climb is different, it’s steeper and was used when the Vuelta a España finished here in 2023. If it helps imagine the Volta a Catalunya finish, just harder.
The Contenders: the photo above is from Stage 2 last year in Boulogne and says plenty. Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-PremierTech) if things don’t go wild as soon as they hit the finishing circuit. He can cope with the climbs but would probably like a truce on the first time around the circuit if possible.
Tadej Pogačar (UAE) is the other obvious pick, he thrives on hilly terrain like this and the pitch of the road to the line is ideal for him. It’s hard to see past these two.
Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) in the picture above too was among the fastest uphill yesterday – similar to Pidcock and Vingegaard – but his problem is he’s excellent but the names cited above are hard to surpass. Michael Matthews (Jayco) did well too but is long in the tooth these days. Can Paul Seixas (Decathlon-CMA CGM) sprint? He seems less punchy, preferring longer efforts to asphyxiate rivals but we’ll learn more here.
 |
Van der Poel, Pogačar |
 |
– |
 |
Grégoire, Evenepoel, Van Gils, Vacek, Pidcock |
Weather: cooling down during the day from 33°C to 30°C. There’s an onshore breeze meaning a crosswind during the stage but the forecast is for a gentle 20km/h. Normally this is insufficient to split the field… but this is the Tour de France and there’s a self-fulfilling effect where no team wants to be caught out so they jostle for position which ups the pace and before you know it there’s a gap.
TV: KM0 is at 1.55pm and the finish is forecast for 5.25pm CEST.
Looks like a bit of a classics one day race – MvdP versus Pogacar. The likes of Ayuso and Seixas need to stay alert, but barring accidents, I don’t suppose there’ll be big time gaps.
Will we see much of an attempt to get into a breakaway as the sprint is at 85 km and then it’s straight into the cat.2 climb?
Still got a feeling NSN will be active as they’re sort of on “home turf”.
Maybe Ganna could be a threat if he survives the climb?
Outside chance for Mauro Schmidt? Was superb in Fleche Wallone, so will handle the 13% ramp on the Montjuic, and he can sprint (Cadel Road Race). Can he match motors with the big dogs in this finish?
He was good in the Flèche but several bike lengths behind Seixas so how to get ahead this time? He could try to get in a move and win from there and hope that Alpecin come unstuck on the hilly circuit.
No chainring for Vingegaard? He will defend yellow and won’t want to concede any time bonus to the Pog. So, I’d expect to see him contesting a small group sprint finish.
If he’s contesting the finish surely Van der Poel and Pogačar finish ahead? That’s the thinking anyway.
Can Jonas Vingegaard keep Yellow until Paris? 🙂 Must be a chance of a break going the distance today especially if a non GC threat sees a chance of grabbing the jersey. Visma would be happy to see a decent break go so chasing down to UAE or Alpecin. Although given its the second stage of the Tour there will be a lot of motivated riders so maybe not. Must also be a high chance of crashes.
Assuming Vingegaard wants to be in yellow in Paris (which he obviously does), then why would he choose literally the hardest way possible to achieve that? We’ve all heard the stories about how the extra duties of the yellow jersey lead to you doing everything from eating your dinner to having a massage alone after the race and having no real down time. As it is, its quite possible he isn’t even in yellow after today factoring in bonus seconds and assuming a micro gap at the finish – or the possibility a break wins.
Was being sarcastic! There has been various speculation that Tadej Pogacar was aiming to wear Yellow all the way to Paris, which is likely to be more media hype than anything else.
Sir, the Tour de France is serious business!
Yes, with Jonas you’d expect they’d do the sensible thing of giving up the yellow to a willing fall guy and settle back in to the war with Pog.
But with Pog I think he’d have considered going all the way to Paris and it wasn’t just media hype. Makes me think of him going after all five monuments in a year, which he’s never said but clearly had in the back of his mind this year. These outlandish goals, things like yellow start to finish, are what keeps him interested so pretty convinced he’d have tried even if he’d never have said it was an explicit goal.
for sure Alpecin will be fully comitted to chasing down the break. Today is their main goal for the tour, though it might be hard get a gap on Pogacar in order to get yellow.
Any postcards coming for Le Tour?
Look around rather than posting messages trying to seed your URL for SEO purposes and you’ll find one already. More coming soon.
Ooh, le burn. Had to look it up. If that’s what they’re doing (with such an original handle), why not block them? Or am I missing something?
I’d give Pidcock a second chainring. Third fastest on the last climb, 2 seconds behind Pogačar. He’s very good on short, sharp climbs
You could be right, today is on the frontier for Van der Poel given the amount of climbing in the finish and the slope at the end; and Pidcock can rival Pogačar at times.
The arm bath is not a new “cooling method”. It’s an old traditional hydrotherapy method from the 19th century invented by Bavarian priest Sebastian Kneipp.
Indeed, cooling in water is not new either 😉 but it is a first in the sport pre-race. Arms have a decent surface area and blood flow and obviously easier to get out of rather than sitting in a tank while wearing a skinsuit and socks that often takes several minutes to get in.
It has several benefits, for german speakers you can read it up here: https://www.kneipp.com/de_de/kneipp-wissen/kneipp-anwendungen/kaltes-armbad/
It just shows that again something in the sport is presented as new and maybe revolutionary, whereas it is known since centuries 🙂
for those that don’t speak German is there any application to help out in a heatwave?
If you use the Chrome browser from Google, it will decently translate webpages. On my PC installation, the option to translate popped up on the righthand side of the URL “address bar” when I visited that webpage.
Dear God, there’s always one.
Given how hot it is and with talk of stages having to be curtailed or even cancelled because of the heat seems rather crazy for the UCI to be “banning” ice socks. I can maybe see the point in a TT but hopefully not for normal stages.
There is a framework to cancel stages because of the heat but in the event of a red alert for weather in France but this is not forecast in the coming days, it’ll be warm but not infernal. Also this cancellation is for public health, ie spectators and those working on the race from police at junctions and other staff, and separate from riders.
Ice socks?
the stockings stuffed with ice that riders put down their necks…they were not permitted to use them yesterday during the TTT. unclear if they can use them on regular road stages….
They can obviously use them in regular stages; they have been doing it all year. But the commisaires worry about whether they could be used as a faring in time-trials, so are extra vigilent. In any case, they only race for 20-25 mins in the time trial, so not really obvious the ice-sock provides much benefit.
They’ve been using them already on today’s stage.
I’m genuinely wondering if that’s the most I’ve enjoyed a first stage at the Tour ever?
What do others think?
I feel there have been better stages and stories but that was such a perfect introduction to this Tour it just felt right?
The amount of time (2hours) was nice, the course was excellent, the watching experience of flicking between a fair few evenly matched teams toward the end and finally the new system of leaving the leaders to go for themselves all made for a great opening day.
I really like that the stage showed in a very literal way how cycling works in that a team supports one or two riders, so any newcomers can understand immediately the team dynamic from a single stage.
Also showed Barcelona in a great way, so much better than a prologue as the time is condensed and you’re not sitting around for hours to get through riders who don’t really care about their prologue time – in this version almost everyone cares and matters, maybe except the early teams, but the novelty at that point keeps you watching.
Big thumbs up from me, really think this should be the standard going forward despite maybe the slight drawback that it gives an early advantage to the strongest teams so likely means less surprising Yellow jersey winners in days to come.
Agree, great stage. Certainly better than a prologue or ITT. I never really followed these stages in Paris-Nice but in the Tour it proved to be a brilliant watch.
i’m not sure if ASO came up with this winning format by chance or design. But it really works and passes the average punter test and works beautifully to understand the teams and the riders. I’m watching from distance but the TV coverage seems to show a real cycle Fiesta for the grand depart. Chapeau to ASO for this, similar to monmarte finish last year they’ve hit a winner. With their portfolio of races they can trial some other formats, I’d be quite keen to see a test of the old two stage days with a modern twist. Some sort of qualifier in the morning for a crit style race later with time bonuses in the crit race. A pared down field that again makes it easier to watch for less hardcore fans and a smaller parcours with laps so you don’t blink and miss it if you’re a spectator in the street. In the ehtos of the best rider would add crit style skills to the TT and climbing requirements.
How would cumulative time work on this? Hinault ed a riders strike against split stages. A grand tour is not a crit. In a word, no.
I think there is a UCI rule which prohibits split stages. And since all riders have to complete each stage, there can be no “pared down field”.
Half-stages are indeed banned from WorldTour races under the regulations as they stand currently.
But UCI regulations are not carved on stone tablets. They can always be replaced with new versions of the UCI regulations, or derogations made to allow trials of new initiatives prior to making a full change of the regulations.
The “Paris-Nice TTT” format was also not allowed a couple of year back.
Qualifier? Big no.
To make it possible, the ‘modern twist’ on the half-stage would have to be that riders would only complete one of the two rather than both. As pointed out already, the old format of half-stages was not popular with the riders.
A final day split stage format I’d like to see would be:
– TT stage raced by the top 20 on GC and any other riders nominating to try and win the stage. 38km course starting at the Eiffel Tower, using the remainder of the run in and then two laps of the full Montmartre/Champs circuit.
– Road stage contested by the rest of the field, featuring extra points sprints and maximum rate points for the stage win. Distance in the range of 90-100km, which could be achieved with this year’s final stage by shortening the run in to start at Versailles for a 97.7km course.
– this would offer a competitive final stage for the purists, plus a good racing show for the fans who turn out to watch.
Calculation of the GC:
– Nominal distance and average speed of the full race to use the distance of the TT.
– Riders completing the TT to have their GC calculated according to their time.
– Road stage winner’s time adjusted to be equal to the TT time for the 20th rider on GC, so the gap from 20th to 21st on GC remains the same as after the penultimate stage.
It’s a grand tour not a novelty race
@DaveRides. As Coppi says it’s not a novelty race.
Yes, I agree with what OldDave says here. Particularly the point about how the format helps casual fans understand the team dynamic and team tactics in general.
Looking at the GC ratings, it seems that many riders have now dropped out of the battle for the yellow jersey already. So maybe the format is something that should only be done every few years in the Tour. I think it is also nice that lesser riders who are not trying to win the whole race get a chance to wear yellow for a few days in the first week.
TNT commentary said 1-0 to Vinny v Pog but it appears to be 1-1 as Pog did the final climb faster. If I was betting, my money would be on Pog to sneak into yellow with a small gap on Vinny over the line plus the bonus seconds for the win (possibly with del Toro picking up bonus seconds too).
If you told Pog he’d only lose 12 seconds before the race I think he’d have been perfectly happy with that. Its nothing. When I see JV caning Pog up mountains then I will start to worry for him.
The time differences, in my opinion, are too small for anyone to have “won”. If Vingegaard had won by 30 seconds then he could aim to just follow Pogacar for the rest of the Tour. But this gap is too small for that, and Vingegaard will need to drop Pogacar somewhere in the mountains if he is to hold yellow in Paris. And given the Montmatre climb, he will likely want well over a minute lead for that stage.
That was the most exciting start to Le Tour for an age.
Today’s stage has the potential to be the 2nd best for an age.
Many thanks.
I hope everyone has taken a look through the Tour’s website headshots, worth a look for the laughs.
Brandon McNulty’s helmet tan.
Quinn Simmons full maga viking.
Lenny Martinez looking like a cartoon character.
Tobias Foss the man with two brains.
Dorian Godon’s French resistance era charm once you’ve parachuted out your spitfire.
Cian U looking like a 45 year old extra out of Mad Men despite being 23.
And Degenklob’s sharp hair which is very confusing as I thought he went bald years ago!
Loving this ^___^
This has made me look at through the headshots. Pretty unflattering all round I’d say! I don’t know why more riders didn’t try smiling. And McNulty’s far from the only one with helmet tan lines.
Oh god. The ears. So many ears.
The Newly Revised Lombroso Companion might have an entry about that and GH…
there is so much to love about the tour, not least your writing and the community btl. many thanks as always for sharing your time and insight
Vauquelin looked rightly frustrated with his puncture and some commentators including Voeckler got close to saying he’d have been in yellow without it. That can’t be true. He wouldn’t have matched Ganna.
Surely the Ineos plan would have been for Ganna to lead Vauquelin out onto the climb, and Vauquelin to try to make the most of the steeper slopes at the end.
Yes, that was the plan.
Ganna would have gone harder, earlier, so the team would have had a bigger lead at the bottom of the climb than they did. It is certainly plausible that Vauquelin would have been in yellow if he didn’t puncture.
The etiquette of the new TT is interesting. Do the best riders have to hold back a bit longer than they’d like to emphasize they appreciate the help? There’s no I in team, but…
No, the goal is to get the leader to the line as fast as possible. I would assume they run calculations and try to come up with a plan to maximize the outcome.
There are different ways to this though, resting riders for the finish versus using leaders to take some turns and variations on this. It is team and course dependent.
Begues from Gava and Olesa – Vallirana – Cervelló, sweet memories of a great classic in our club rides. Begues can be tricky, although not as far from the finish or as soon in the Tour. It’s an inland road through a (then?) uninhabitated zone, some 8% stretch allow selection then twisty roads in the false flats make it hard to close the gaps.
Las Costes del Garraf often tackled in the opposite direction (or both as in there and back again) were typical to kick off the season and made you feel you were racing the Capi of a small Sanremo 😛
Then traffic started to make them feel more akin to training on open roads through the Aurelia.
I remember them in the same direction as today as the way back home after Rat Penat, a climb (and the subsequent terrain) which would have been fun to watch today… probably a bit too much for a st. 2, or, in any case, something that the peloton would have neutralised just climbing at a modest (for them) pace.
Is it possible to see a full list, or at least top 20, of the times for the final climb? I know we can infer the top 5 from the KotM rankings, but I’d be interested to see the full times?
use procyclingstats and find the live info from yesterday’s stage. it’s at the end of their live coverage….
It’s only for the final segment rather than the final climb but here: https://www.tumblr.com/inrng/821305993280536576
The Tissot Timing website has the full classification.
1 1 POGACAR Tadej UEX SLO 4:48”25 00”
2 11 VINGEGAARD Jonas TVL DEN 4:50”27 02”
3 21 EVENEPOEL Remco RBH BEL 4:50”84 02”
4 84 GANNA Filippo NCI ITA 4:51”38 03”
5 181 *GREGOIRE Romain GFC FRA 4:54”94 06”
Not quite the theme of the day but I stumbled on this and it offers a number of interesting takes sponsorship-wise both on Pogi and the sport in general:
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7415911/2026/07/04/tadej-pogacar-tour-de-france-sponsors/?unlocked_article_code=1.vFA.rHb_.8ZHSIBzfcAoF&source=athletic_user_shared_gift_article_copylink&smid=url-share-ta?source=twitteruk
No need to say that the poorest part looks Carera’s comment on crypto (palmface).
He could as well say that his own percentage justifies everything.
Also the TV part is not especially strong (not comparable with the above nonsense about children cancer of course) but all the same it’s quite significant that it’s being pointed out in such terms – which I mostly agree with.
I’d heard he was going to try and find bigger sponsors – think this was mentioned in a post last autumn/going into winter – but hasn’t landed anything to match his status. Can’t help think if he had another agent at a more general agency he’d land a deal. But no rush and the article sets out other reasons too.
As it happens Pauline Ferrand-Prévot is doing TV ads for washing powder in France, rare to see a cyclist in this role.
This might have been said somewhere else here, but live coverage, free is on S4C (Welsh language) in UK, on my Virgin Media box. Channel 164. Luckily, Sean Kelly can’t speak Welsh, so isn’t on the commentary team!
Nice chilled commentary on S4C – I enjoyed it, even though I don’t understand a word of Welsh.
I’ve just learnt the Welsh for ‘sticky bottle’ is ‘sticky bottle’.
Britain is a country where being a member of a minority is increasingly essential.
Chippy white guys will always find a way to be heard. You’ll be fine.
The only identity group on the planet that it’s still considered socially acceptable to dismiss in such a sneering way.
Wow, and don’t you get why?
I’m old school, and up until yesterday, preferred the “5th man across” format TTT. It makes it all about the team ride, not just the preferred GC leader. I sis watch the Paris-Nice TTT stage, and was not impressed. Yesterday, though, was one of the best TT stages of the Tour that I’ve ever seen, second only to the year Lemond chased down Fignon on the Champs to win the GC.
Visma worked like a polished machine, and it got their leader the win. Tadej may be stronger overall than Jonas, and could end up winning GC, but don’t forget that the last time he lost the Tour to Jonas, it was because the top three Visma riders beat the living crap out of him on the high mountain stages until he cracked. This year’s race, until something major changes, is between Team Visma and Tadej. Yes, he has Del Toro now. We will see if that’s enough.
I don’t think Pog will need del Toro. But a ‘nice to have’.
Whether he needs him or not, it’s clear IdT is in the best form of his life.
I’m worried this might end up like another UAE horror movie.
Great write-up as usual!
What a start – two stages turned out to be far more interesting than expected.
While it’s hard to draw many conclusions from Montjuïc today, it did seem to reveal a few things..
Seixas has a lot to learn – and his team is nowhere near UAE/VLAB.
Pogacar is either arrogant enough to think he doesn’t need every bonus second he can grab, or he’s aiming to avoid taking the yellow jersey too early. Or maybe it’s both.
Lipo isn’t there. Or he is a slow starter again.
After all the buzz around some of the second-layers APP, VPP, Bernal, Riccitello, Uijtdebroeks, Jegat, Arensman, O’Connor and others, they can now comfortably turn their attention to domestic tasks and hunting the remaining 19 stages.
Great to see some Nordic flair from Skjelmose and THJ.
Del Toro will take second place in this year’s Tour, finishing five minutes behind Pogacar but five minutes ahead of Vingo. And yes, it’s going to be that boring.
Don’t forget that Pogi comes from a small country. Now he has a lot of brothers chanting Pogacar, hermano, ya eres mexicano 🙂
Exactly! And with Mexico out of the World Cup, the spotlight is now on France. 🙂
I was wondering how the Pogacar detractors would characterize the stage 2 result and I guess ‘arrogance’ is about the only angle.
You can probably add in the Seixas detractors as well.
I really like Seixas, but to me, it’s pretty clear that his team is noticeably behind his competitors.
LOL. But absolutely guilty as charged. I’ve gone from being a Pogacar fan five years ago, to feeling indifferent, and now to being a confirmed detractor.The main issue isn’t (only) Pogacar himself, but rather Team UAE, which I simply can’t stand.
@ Ryan. I think Seixas’ relatively weak team will hurt him as much if not more than his abilities v Pog/Vinny/del Toro and co. Del Toro could well push Vinny for second as I don’t think Pog is going to need to rely on help from him (I’m still hoping Vinny will challenge for yellow, though as I’m a fan, although I don’t dislike Pog at all).
I agree with everything and admit I was a bit hard on Seixas earlier. He’s a quick learner and will—at least I hope—prove us wrong in the coming weeks.