Key Takeaways: Tour de France Stage 1

Breaking down what we learned at the stress-filled opening stage of the 2025 Tour de France

Across the rolling terrain of French Flanders, the 2025 Tour de France roared out of the gates with a hectic stage in Lille that produced fast, intense racing, forcing the top contenders for both the overall classification and the stage win to stay attentive and near the front, while cruelly punishing those who didn’t. After the dust settled on a finale marked by crosswinds-created splits, Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Jasper Philipsen had won the stage in commanding fashion, getting his 10th career Tour stage win, ahead of Biniam Girmay, while the race’s top two GC contenders, Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard, put critical time into contenders like Remco Evenepoel and Primož Roglič, who found themselves on the back foot and forced to play catch-up after just a single stage.

Stage 1 Top Five:
1) Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin‑Deceuninck)+0
2) Biniam Girmay (Intermarché‑Wanty)+0
3) Søren Wærenskjold (Uno‑X Mobility)+0
4) Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies)+0
5) Matteo Trentin (Tudor Pro Cycling)+0

Current GC Top Five:
1) Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin‑Deceuninck)+0
2) Biniam Girmay (Intermarché‑Wanty)+4
3) Søren Wærenskjold (Uno‑X Mobility)+6
4) Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies)+10
5) Matteo Trentin (Tudor Pro Cycling)+10

Select GC Contenders Gained(+)/Lost(-) On the Stage:
Pogačar +0
Vingegaard +0
O'Connor +0
Mas +0
Jorgenson +0
Evenepoel -39
Roglič -39
Almeida -39
Lipowitz -39
A.Yates -5:18
S.Yates -6:31

Stage 1 Race Notebook

BTP is seamlessly following every twist and turn of the 2025 Tour de France with the fantastic Tour Tracker app (iPhone/Android/Web)

185km-105km: The early break goes without issue, but the pace is so high behind due to nerves and crosswinds that they are caught with over 100km to go, while a shocking number of riders are caught out and spat out the back.

78.8km: After a fast and nervous start to the stage, where the early breakaway struggled to gain a significant advantage and multiple notable riders were caught out and dropped due to the high pace, Benjamin Thomas and Mattéo Vercher, two of the early breakaway riders who re-created the breakaway after being caught, crash out after Thomas loses control following a sprint for a KOM point.

45.1km: This elimination of the early breakaway increases the tension in the peloton, with Jonas Vingegaard taking a KOM ‘sprint’ due to being so paranoid about a potential attack from a GC contender that he goes over the top in front.

17.4km: When the peloton hits crosswinds coming into the finale, Vingegaard is so focused on staying ahead of any splits that he personally gets to the front and rotates through.

17.2km: While Tadej Pogačar is also at the front and rotating through (the safest thing to do in crosswinds), the other top GC contenders, like Remco Evenepoel, Primož Roglič, and João Almeida, are sitting too far back.

16.8km: This positioning proves to be a massive mistake when the scramble for limited space to hide from the crosswinds splits the peloton into multiple groups, with Pogačar and Vingegaard at the front, while the others, including stage favorites Tim Merlier and Jonathan Milan, are caught behind. The gap may look small, but the failure to react immediately dooms both the GC and sprinters caught behind, and sees them riding to simply limit their losses at the finish.

900m: Going into the final kilometer, Alpecin-Deceuninck takes over at the front from Uno-X. Jasper Philipsen, their sprinter, still has three riders in front of him, including Mathieu van der Poel and Kaden Groves.

750m: Van der Poel takes over on the front with Philipsen tucked in third wheel, as the other sprinters scramble for space behind.

550m: Van der Poel pulls off after a surprisingly short and slow pull, leaving Groves to pilot Philipsen through the next 300 meters.

200m: Groves pulls off, leaving Philipsen to fend for himself in the final few hundred meters. However, all he needs to do is hold his position, while others, like Biniam Girmay, have to attempt to squeeze past along the barriers.

Finish: By the finish line, Philipsen has increased his gap to nearly three bike lengths, and crosses the line for a blowout 10th career Tour stage win, while Girmay picks up an important second and Uno-X’s Søren Wærenskjold gets an impressive third.

Three Key Takeaways