Tour de France 2023: Adam Yates wins the first stage and takes the yellow jersey

Briton Adam Yates (UAE) donned the first yellow jersey of the Tour de France 2023 on Saturday in Bilbao, winning the first stage ahead of his brother Simon Yates, who rides for the Jayco-AlUla team. The second from the last Dauphiné broke away with his twin brother in the descent of the Pike coast, 9 kilometers from the finish, to win with a four-second lead. His Slovenian teammate Tadej Pogacar sprinted a small group of favorites who arrived twelve seconds later.

It is, at 30, the first stage victory on the Grande Boucle for Adam Yates who had already worn the yellow jersey for four days in 2020. The two main favorites of the Tour de France, Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar have neutralized. They crossed the fearsome Pike hill (2 km at 10%) in the lead in the company of Frenchman Victor Lafay, but without really attacking each other. At one point, the Slovenian, who is coming back from a broken wrist, made a sign with his elbow to ask his Danish rival to take over, but the latter shook his head. In the descent to Bilbao, Adam Yates, who was promoted to co-leader of the UAE team, took the opportunity to launch the offensive and get the stage as well as the ten bonus seconds promised to the leader.

The route of the first stage of the Tour de France.
Credits: official Tour de France website

Pogacar also raised his arms as he crossed the line, to salute his teammate’s victory. Third in the stage, he also pocketed four bonus seconds. The Slovenian arrived at the head of a small group in which appeared, in addition to Vingegaard, the French David Gaudu and Thibaut Pinot, or even Wout Van Aert. The two big losers of the day are the Spaniard Enric Mas, who retired after a fall on the descent of the penultimate climb of the day, falling at the same time as another contender for the podium, Richard Carapaz. The Ecuadorian was able to restart but lost all hope for the general classification after being on the ground for long minutes.

“An almost perfect day” for Thibaut Pinot

“An almost perfect day”, Thibaut Pinot savored Saturday after his fourth place at the arrival in Bilbao of the first stage of the Tour de France, his last in the peloton. “It’s a good start, we are two in the right group, it’s an almost perfect day”, judges the climber from Franche-Comté, he and David Gaudu, the leader of his Groupama-FDJ team, having finished in the same restricted group as the two favorites of the Great Loop, Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar. “There was a third place to go for, I got beaten in the sprint (by Pogacar, editor’s note) but it’s pretty good”, retains the unfortunate hero of the 2019 Tour.

Thibaut Pinot occupies fourth place in the general classification, 22 seconds behind Adam Yates, 8 seconds behind Simon Yates and 4 seconds behind Tadej Pogacar, who grabbed his slight lead in the bonus game. As for his teammate David Gaudu, ranked at the same time as Pinot, he reassured himself after a disappointing Critérium du Dauphiné, finishing in 30th place and more than 25 minutes behind winner Jonas Vingegaard in mid-June. “It’s also reassuring vis-à-vis the Dauphiné, on the steep climb, I managed to fall into the wheels of the front three”, appreciates the Breton.

Abandonment of the Spaniard Enric Mas, contender for the podium

The Spanish climber Enric Mas, pretender to the podium of the Tour de France, gave up on the first stage on Saturday following a fall about twenty kilometers from the finish in Bilbao. Fifth in the 2020 Great Loop, Enric Mas went ashore with Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz, winner of the 2019 Tour of Italy, in the descent of the Vivero hill, the penultimate difficulty of the day.

After holding his right arm and shoulder for a long time, the leader of Movistar, who had already had to leave the last edition due to a Covid infection, finally gave up. Carapaz, with a cut left knee, got back in the saddle after long minutes on the ground but has probably already lost all hope of making a good general classification.

The Tour de France sets off in the fervor of Euskadi

The Tour de France riders set off on Saturday from Bilbao, under gray skies and in front of thousands of enthusiasts, for three weeks of racing before the scheduled arrival on July 23 in Paris. The first stage, a 182 km loop from Bilbao to Bilbao passing through the martyr city of Guernica, already promises sparks, with five climbs, sometimes very steep, where the best should explain themselves. “There will be sport. I want to win, I’m motivated,” said Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe before the start, who dreams of donning the first yellow jersey of the 2023 Tour on Saturday afternoon.

But he is not the only one. “Taking the yellow jersey in the Basque Country would be magnificent,” warned Slovenian Tadej Pogacar, one of the two big favorites for the final victory with the title contender, Dane Jonas Vingegaard. Tens of thousands of supporters were massed along the roads of the Basque capital, a territory passionate about cycling, which hosts its second start of the Grande Boucle after San Sebastian in 1992. The peloton will remain in the Spanish Basque Country on Sunday for a stage rallying Vitoria in San Sebastian. He will then take the direction of France and Bayonne on Monday before the final arrival on the Champs-Élysées.

The boss of the Tour, Christian Prudhomme, declared Friday to be “in constant contact with the services of the State” and to follow “with great attention” the violence which affects many cities in France and led to the cancellation of several big events. Over the three weeks, some 28,000 gendarmes, police officers and firefighters will be mobilized in total this year again to guarantee the safety of the Grande Boucle, one of the most important sports competitions on the planet, broadcast in 190 countries.

Pogacar, the shadow of a doubt

On the sporting level, everyone is waiting for a duel at the top between Jonas Vingegaard, defending champion, and Tadej Pogacar, winner of the two previous editions. But uncertainty hangs over the state of form of the Slovenian cannibal who has hardly run since his wrist fracture during Liège-Bastogne-Liège on April 23, while Vingegaard crushed the competition at Dauphiné. Saturday, we could find the two men neck and neck at the entrance, especially in the Pike coast (2 km at 10%), placed less than ten kilometers from the line.

Punchers like Mathieu van der Poel, Wout Van Aert or Julian Alaphilippe have also checked off the stage and dream of wearing yellow from day one. The rest of the course is just as tough. With 30 passes, a record, the crossing of the five massifs of France and a single time trial, 22.4 km and uphill, the Tour 2023 even looks like a little paradise for climbers.

In Memory Of Gino Mäder

Marie-Blanque, Aspin and Tourmalet in the Pyrenees, the fantasized Puy de Dôme in the Massif Central, back 35 years later, the Grand Colombier in the Jura on July 14, the Col de la Loze in the Alps and a stage of five climbs in the Vosges on the eve of the arrival in Paris: a mountain orgy awaits the runners. And French climbers like David Gaudu, Romain Bardet and Thibaut Pinot, for whom this will be the last Tour, will want to shine, if they can’t really aim for the final victory.

In the absence of Geraint Thomas, Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic, Gaudu and Bardet are among the many contenders for the podium, with the Spaniards Enric Mas and Mikel Landa, the Australians Ben O’Connor and Jai Hindley or the Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz . Far from the fight for the general classification, a historic issue will serve as a red thread for this 110th edition where Mark Cavendish will try to beat the record for stage victories he holds with Eddy Merckx (34). At 38, the Briton is no longer the best sprinter in the peloton, a status claimed by Fabio Jakobsen, Jasper Philipsen and Dylan Groenewegen. But the “Cav” has promised to leave his skin on the asphalt to enter definitively into the legend of the Tour.

The Tour de France will also pay tribute to Gino Mäder, who died in the descent of a Tour de Suisse pass in mid-June, by withdrawing bib number 61 this year. “Gino will be with us throughout the Tour,” said Spaniard Mikel Landa, leader of the Bahrain team to which the Swiss rider belonged.

A hunting territory for Julian Alaphilippe

This could already be an opportunity for the favorites to explain themselves, defending champion Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar in the lead. The Dane, who closed the presentation ceremony, expects his Slovenian rival to attack him from the first stages, like last year. “I will have to be ready,” said the leader of Jumbo-Visma.

It is also a hunting ground for punchers like Julian Alaphilippe who dreams of wearing the first yellow jersey of the 2023 edition ending on July 23 on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. “With a start like here in the Basque Country, the riders in the general classification cannot afford to waste time. They have to be really ready from day one”, underlined Alaphilippe.

In the meantime, the city has adorned itself with the colors of the Tour. Public benches, flower boxes, facades, elevators, lampposts and even the funicular that leads to Artxanda, on the heights, are adorned with yellow and red polka dots. Murals to the glory of cycling decorate shops and metro stations.