Key Takeaways: Tour de France Stage 1
Breaking down the key moments on one of the most exciting grand tour opening stages in recent history
After forging clear of an elite front group at the end of an extremely difficult day of racing in the Spanish Basque Country, Adam Yates won the opening stage of the 2023 Tour de France, and took the race’s inaugural Yellow Jersey, in Bilbao. While this would be a massive moment for any rider’s career, the fact that Yates’ late breakaway companion was his twin brother, Simon, made the moment both historic and somewhat surreal, and capped what was likely one of the most exciting opening days of the Tour de France in modern history.
A few seconds behind, Tadej Pogačar, who was happy to sit back and let his rival Jonas Vingegaard’s Jumbo-Visma team take up responsibility for the chase, easily won the sprint for third place. While Pogačar enthusiastically celebrated his team taking two out of the three podium spots, and time bonuses, the fact that the defending champion Jonas Vingegaard was able to get through the day without expending unnecessary energy (or having his team take the race lead), and was able to keep Pogačar from taking the full time bonuses on offer, means that despite UAE’s splashy entrance, Vingegaard’s title defense got off to a strong start. While it was hard not to feel like the stage revealed another two-rider fight for overall victory, the fight for the podium was blown open due to Enric Mas and Richard Carapaz crashing, and eventually abandoning the race, after crashing on the penultimate descent.
Stage Top Five:
1) Adam Yates +0
2) Simon Yates +4
3) Tadej Pogačar +12
4) Thibaut Pinot +12
5) Mike Woods +12
Stage GC Time Gaps:
Adam Yates +0
Simon Yates +8
Tadej Pogačar +18
Jonas Vingegaard +22
Jai Hindley +22
David Gaudu +22
Carlos Rodríguez +22
Mikel Landa +22
Mattias Skjelmose +22
Current GC Top Five:
1) Adam Yates +0
2) Simon Yates +8
3) Tadej Pogačar +18
4) Thibaut Pinot +22
5) Mike Woods +22
Stage 1 Race Notebook:
27.2km: On the day’s penultimate climb, Neilson Powless is setting a hard pace on the front (for somewhat unknown reasons), while Jonas Vingegaard, surrounded by three Jumbo teammates, is sitting just behind, with Tadej Pogačar, with his own fleet of team support, is sitting right on his wheel. No attacks will go this far from the finish, but this positioning shows just how aware the top two favorites are of each other and how much positioning will matter on these climbs.
11.4km: Pogačar’s UAE team is lining up a full leadout heading into the day’s final, and toughest, climb. Directly behind the leadout, Pogačar and Vingegaard are still marking each other closely, while the others sit further back and are at risk of losing time,
10.2km: Pogačar’s UAE teammate Adam Yates gets to the front and sets an extremely hard pace, which begins to split the group. Vingegaard, who is directly on Pogacar’s wheel, and Victor Lafay, are the only riders capable of matching the pace.
When we look at an overheard screenshot, we see that Yates’ pace has blown open a significant gap to the others, and, with fans lining the sides of the road, the opportunities for other GC contenders to bridge up, no matter how strong they are, are limited due to the lack of space. This highlights just how important positioning was at the start of the climb, and how much it could make or break a GC rider’s day.
10km: Pogačar attacks off Adam Yates’ pace, but Vingegaard and Lafay are able to follow. Vingegaard smartly declines to work when asked by Pogačar, and the three cross the summit of the climb with a small gap over a group, which now contains both Yates twins.
8.2km: After Vingegaard refuses to work with Pogačar, the pace comes off at the front, and a fairly large and cumbersome group forms. The Yates brothers take advantage of this lull by attacking and immediately get a significant gap.
7km: Vingegaard’s Jumbo team gets to the front to close down the gap to the two leaders, and get it down to just a handful of seconds, but, with Van Aert sitting in to save himself for a sprint, the front two being twins, having aligned incentives, and Pogačar happy to let others close down the gap to his teammate, it will be tough to reel this one in.
400m: The Yates enter the final kilometer with a nearly 20-second gap. After sitting on slightly more than his brother, due to having Simon’s GC rival in the group behind, during the run-in, he begins to distance Simon when he lifts the pace inside the final few hundred meters.
Finish: Adam crosses the finish line, a few seconds ahead of his brother, to win the stage, take the race’s first Yellow Jersey, and create a truly special, and historic, moment of twins finishing 1st and 2nd in a Tour de France stage.
Chase Group Finish: Pogačar smokes the rest of the chase group to take third place and a four-second time bonus, and celebrates his team taking the win, leader’s jersey, and two out of the three available time bonuses. The fact that Pogačar won this with such ease shows us why the others weren’t riding all-out to bring back the two leaders.
Key Takeaways:
1) Adam Yates’ UAE team is serious about using him as a bonafide GC option
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