The Tour de France started today with a team time trial of 19.6 km through the streets of Barcelona, Spain.
The protocol for the TTT allows the team to start together and for the fastest rider to finish. It’s a tricky balance if the team cannot move as fast as the best rider, who could end up out alone for too long a distance near the finish.
The mostly flat course had a small climb for the fastest rider to handle at the end, adding some challenge to the teams. It was expected that if the team wasn’t fast enough to the base of the climb, even the fastest rider would not be able to make up the fastest time.
From the start, it was expected that the two teams with the top GC riders would do best, Tadej Pogacar’s UAE Emirates-XRG, and Jonas Vinegeaard’s Visma-Lease a Bike.
After 8 teams had started only one team was in the lead based on the time of Frenchman Roman Gregroire of Groupama FDJ.
Soon Van der Poel took the best time for Alpecin-Premier Tech: 22’26”, two seconds faster than Romain Grégoire and Groupama-FDJ.
Italian National Champion Filippo Ganna soon bested that time by more than 31 seconds with a finish of 21′ 55 “.
But soon Jonas Vingegaard of Team Visma-Lease a Bike made the best time.
With Tadej Pogacar as the last team to finish, he just could not make up the time after a team deficit, and Vingegaard is in the Yellow Jersey.
After his victory at the Giro D’Italia, Vingegaard is in top form. It’s his first Yellow Jersey in three years.
Said the Vingegaard after the finish, “My team did all the work today…they just drove me to the finish…It’s nice for me to experience [the Yellow Jersey} again.”
Thee final standings of the this stage were:
1. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike)
2. Filippo Ganna (Netcompany Ineos), +8”
3. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates-XRG), +12”
4. Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek), +16”
5. Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), +19”
Tadej Pogacar will wear the polka-dot jersey during stage 2 tomorrow because he rode the fastest time on the final climb. He is therefore the leader of the mountain classification, even though no points were awarded today.
