Julian Alaphilippe took a swashbuckling victory on the opening stage of the Tour de France in Landerneau but the day was marred by two huge crashes – one caused by a spectator – which ripped through the peloton.
Alaphilippe warmed French hearts as he swapped his world champion’s rainbow jersey for the yellow jersey, racing clear of his rivals on the climb of the Cote de la Fosse aux Loups at the end of the 198km from Brest.
The main contenders to be in the leader’s jersey come Paris – Tadej Pogacar, Primoz Roglic and Geraint Thomas – were in a group that crossed the line eight seconds later, but there were major time gaps behind as the peloton was left to count the cost of a chaotic finale.
The first incident came with around 45km to go when a spectator reached out into the road with a placard aimed at the TV cameras, oblivious to the danger posed as Jumbo-Visma’s Tony Martin struck the sign and hit the deck to cause a colossal pile-up.
The road was almost entirely blocked by stricken riders and broken bikes – with Pogacar and Martin’s team-mate Roglic among those caught up.
Martin would soon get back up, resuming the race with blood running down his arms, but others were not so lucky with Team DSM’s Jasha Sutterlin confirmed as the race’s first abandon soon after.
It took a full 25km for a battered and bruised peloton to fully regroup but the pack would be ripped apart again by a high-speed incident on the downhill approach to Landerneau.
Chris Froome was among the worst-affected. The four-time Tour winner has put in months of work to return to the race following his devastating crash in the summer of 2019, but it could all be gone in a flash as he struggled to get back to his feet.
Though he did eventually ride to the finish, crossing the line 14 and a half minutes down, it remains to be seen if the Israel Start-Up Nation rider takes the start on Sunday.
Others too face an uncomfortable night’s sleep as they nurse injuries, while the overall hopes of several riders already appear over due to time losses – most notably Miguel Angel Lopez who is almost two minutes down.
Though Thomas and Richard Carapaz avoided trouble, the Ineos Grenadiers’ much-discussed quartet of potential contenders has already been halved – Richie Porte lost two minutes while Tao Geoghegan Hart, apparently delayed by the first crash, conceded more than five.
Simon Yates, who is here to hunt stages with no designs on yellow ahead of the Olympics, rolled in more than three minutes down.
None of that was of any concern to Alaphilippe as he took his sixth career Tour stage win to wear the yellow jersey for a third year in a row.
He had been expected to face stiff competition from Mathieu van der Poel, but no-one could follow his attack more than two kilometres from the summit of the closing climb and he was afforded time to celebrate a popular win well before the line.
“It’s a scenario I imagined and I really wanted to do it but of course I had to do it and it’s really super,” the Deceuninck-QuickStep rider said.
“My team did a great job and controlled it all day. At the end I was caught in a crash but we got back and I really had to make the last climb. I had to get rid of the sprinters, it wasn’t easy but I gave my best and that was it.”