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Tour de France Stage 1: Fernando Gaviria wins, Chris Froome loses time after crash

Drama on opening day of race as defending champion crashes inside final kilometres

Quick Step Floors rider Fernando Gaviria is the first wearer of the yellow jersey of this year’s Tour de France after claiming victory in today’s opening stage – but Team Sky’s Chris Froome, who is aiming to wear it in Paris three weeks tomorrow for a record-equalling fifth time saw his title defence get off to a bad start as he lost almost a minute to several rivals for the overall following a crash.

Shortly before his own crash, which happened with less than 10 kilometres remaining of today's 201 kilometre stage from Noirmoutier-en-L'Ile, Froome - cleared to race on Monday after the anti-doping case against him was dropped by the UCI - looked set to gain time on rivals including Mitchelton-Scott's Adam Yates and BMC Racing's Richie Porte - were caught up in a crash.

But the Team Sky rider's own chute shortly afterwards meant that while he, Yates and Porte crossed the line together 51 seconds behind Gaviria, they lost time to a number of rivals.

Those include Bahrain Merida's Vincenzo Nibali - besides Froome, the only former Tour de France winner in the race - Team Sunweb's Tom Dumoulin, the AG2R-:La Mondiale rider, Romain Bardet, and last year's runner-up, Rigoberto Uran of EF Education First-Drapac.

Another rider to lose time - 24 seconds, in his case - was Movistar's Nairo Quintana, who punctured with little more than 3 kilometres remaining.

Afterwards, Froome said: "I've not been checked by the team doctor but I feel fine.

"I'm okay, we saw a lot of crashes out there but we knew the first few days were going to be tricky.

"We were at the front of the peloton so there was not much more the guys could've done - it was just chaotic with the sprinters up there.

"I'm just grateful I'm not injured in any way and there is plenty of racing left to Paris."

The stage had started with a three-man break comprising the French trio of Jerome Cousin, Kevin Ledanois and Yoann Offredo who were reeled in ahead of the expected sprint finish.

Gaviria, aged 23 and making his debut in the race, launched his sprint with 250 metres to go and held off Bora Hansgrohe's Peter Sagan and former team mate Marcel Kittel - now with Katusha-Alpecin - to take the win.

 

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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7 comments

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ktache | 5 years ago
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Lot of discs this year, anyone know if Gaviria won on a disc equipped bike?

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BehindTheBikesheds replied to ktache | 5 years ago
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ktache wrote:

Lot of discs this year, anyone know if Gaviria won on a disc equipped bike?

I think he was, it was all a bit too easy by comparison to most 1st stage finishes but Gaviria looks on it for sure and seems to have a decent lead out.

Cav has a good lead out team but apparently he wasn't feeling 100% yesterday apparently.

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pedalpowerDC | 5 years ago
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Should be noted that Nario broke both his wheels with 3600m to go. They say it wasn't possible to continue another 600m on them to the 3km mark. Plus, his teammate with his donor bike went down in the 10km crash, so there wasn't another bike readily available for him.

Avatar
dreamlx10 | 5 years ago
1 like

He must have got distracted reaching for his inhaler

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Yorkshire wallet replied to dreamlx10 | 5 years ago
7 likes
dreamlx10 wrote:

He must have got distracted reaching for his inhaler

You need some new material or you'll end up like Peter Kay.

Avatar
Expatpat replied to dreamlx10 | 5 years ago
5 likes

dreamlx10 wrote:

He must have got distracted reaching for his inhaler

 

FFS this is so weak you should be ashamed of yourself

Avatar
ktache | 5 years ago
1 like

Well, wasn't that an exciting last 10km.

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