Usually the opening stage of the Tour de France is a flat stage where the focus of the General Classification, yellow jersey, contenders are focused on avoiding crashes or splits in the peloton. Today was not that type of day. The Basque country is a part of Spain full of rolling hilly terrain that has produced some incredible cyclists like Mikel Landa and Miguel Indurain. The route designers selected a route that included several categorized climbs which is atypical for an opening stage. The categorized climbs would provide opportunities for the teams of the yellow jersey contenders to attempt attacks.
The stage turned into exactly what the organizers and route makers intended. An early breakaway formed once the racing got underway. The breakaway of five riders would be held in check by the peloton to avoid them getting to large of a lead. The 5 riders would be in the lead over the first two climbs of the day, but they would be caught with over 40 kilometers to go in the stage. Once the break had been caught the pace in the peloton would pick up as the third climb of the day approached. Once the climb began the pace started to drop riders who could not keep up. Once over the top there was a technical descent which would lead up to the sole category 2 climb of the day. Everyone member of the peloton had in the back of their minds the risk of descents due to the recent passing of Gino Mader that I mentioned in the route preview. During the descent we had a crash among three riders in the front of the race, composed of yellow jersey contenders. The crash victims were Enric Mas, Richard Carapaz, and a second rider from EF Education First. Mas didn't look to be injured, but was not getting back on his bike. Carapaz on the other hand was bleeding from atleast one knee and sat down on the tarmac to evaluate the injuries. Eventually after the entire race had passed them Carapaz would get back on his bike and ride on knowing that he had already lost any chance of winning the Tour. Meanwhile at the front of the race the pace was not slowing down, and you could sense that this was going to be a day where the yellow jersey contenders could start to separate from their rivals. At the bottom of the category 2 climb UAE sent one of their teammates to the front to set the pace until he was out of steam with the goal of putting rivals in difficulty. He would be replaced by several Jumbo-Visma teammates with defending champion Jonas Vingegaard. Approximately two-thirds of the way up the climb Tadej Pogacar attacked. Initially it was hard to see who had been able to follow him, but once the crowd cleared enough to see there was Pogacar followed by Jonas Vingegaard, and a Cofidis rider. The remaining contenders had been distanced and were staring down losing precious seconds in the run in to Bilbao.During the descent into downtown Bilbao some of the riders initially dropped on the climb were able to catch back on including David Gaudu and Thibaut Pinot of Groupama-FDJ. The regrouping only lasted so long as Simon and Adam Yates attacked out of the group and rode the final kilometers up to the line with Jumbo-Visma desperately trying to chase them down. At the line it was Adam Yates who won and thus will wear the yellow jersey tomorrow. Tadej Pogacar grabbed third to gain a two second time bonus on the rest of the contenders.
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