Tour de France 2025: Philipsen wins the first chaotic step while Melepoel and Roglic suffer | Tour de France 2025

Crosswinds, crashes and chaos characterized a frantic opening stage of the Tour de France, won by Jasper Philipsen in Lille Métropole, where the 27 -year -old also took the first yellow jersey of his career.

The Belgian sprinter, winner of three stages of the 2024 tour, received an armchair for his teammates Alpine-Deceuninck in the long right finish on Boulevard Vauban, where he sent competitors, Biniam Girmay, from Intermarché Wanty, and Søren Wærenkjold, Racing for Uno-X Mobility.

Philipsen has now won 10 stages of tour in four years and with other sprint opportunities expected in the coming days, it seems to add to his count.

“Ten victories are something that I will never forget,” he said, “and the performance of the team was incredible. We were at the front day, we were there in the split, and in the end, we could use our strength to finish it.”

In a chaotic opening stage, run at with frightened speeds through criminal speeds, there have soon been accidents, punctures and horsemen dropped, with a lot of left frantically hunting by the race convoy.

Eighteen kilometers from Lille, the faults finally forced a decisive coup and a selected group advanced. In the group before, the favorites of the Tadej Pogacar race, the title champion of the Emirates XRG water team, and Jonas Vingegaard de Visma-Lease A Vélo, the winner 2022 and 2023.

“It was a stressful day, but a good day for us,” said Vingegaard. “It was our plan to try to go to the wind with 20 km to go. The team prevented me from trouble and they also split. ”

The Dane argued that an attack in growing winds was inevitable. “It’s either us or someone else trying. We knew it was quite windy. Either you go there or someone else goes. But then, at least you know that you are on the front. “

Pogacar was also satisfied with the result. “Zero kilometer, we were at the front,” said Pogacar. “It was hectic, just as we thought.”

Behind the two favorites, the benefits were brutal, with a frantic jamming required by those who had lost contact with the wheel in front of them. Among these coupes, there was the Olympic road race champion, Remco Evenepoel of Sudal Quick-Step, who finished third in the general classification last year, the five-time winner of the Grand Tour Roglic, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe and the Vingegaard teammate, Simon Yates, the Giro of Italia Winner.

OnePoel and Roglic are now already on the rear foot, just like Geraint Thomas, all three having lost 39 seconds against Pogacar and Vingegaard. Yates, on the other hand, is a 164th distant in total, already more than six minutes behind the main favorites.

“Thirty-nine seconds is pain,” said Oelepoel. “It’s always boring to start a tour behind.”

It was also a painful start for the tour for the Grenadiers d’Ineos, after Filippo Ganna, should be a key competitor in the individual time trial of stage five around Caen, underwent the ignominy to be the first runner to abandon after a previous accident, only 52 km in the race.

Worse, French hope Lenny Martinez, from Bahrain Victorious, supervised by the former Sky team and the British cycling coach Rod Ellingworth. The 21 -year -old finished last dead, a few meters ahead of the broom wagon, after losing more than nine minutes.

The scene completed southwest, then headed north, through Pas-de-Calais, before folding the Belgian border and turning to Lille while the peloton was heading for the finish. The early breakaway, of five runners, survived for 70 km before the peloton won them near the first intermediate sprint, at the Motte-au-Bois, won by Jonathan Milan of Lidl-Trek.

The following post-Sprint lull was filled by the French duo Benjamin Thomas, gold medalist on the Trip of the Paris Olympic Games from last year now for Cofidis, and Mattéo Vercher de Totalengegies.

A breathtaking peloton was briefly happy to give them the head on the approach of the climb of Mont Cassel, while they were building an advance that pushed a minute. But in a moment that seemed to embody the discomfort of the country of origin, the pair self-saboted during the sprint for the climbing points during the ascent of the fourth category, the rear wheel of Thomas slipping on the dusty pavers and taking a furious vercher down, while they crossed the top of the hill.

Meanwhile, Dave Brailsford made a reclusive return to the departure village of the tour. “We all like to see him again and we feel honored that he is here,” said sports director of Ineos Grenadiers, Zak Dempster. For the moment, however, Brailsford does not yet honor the media with public appearances.

The second stage, heading north of Lauwin-Planque to the Boulogne-sur-Mer canal, will surely offer more than the same thing, but with three short closing ascents in the 30 km of fence, the outcome can be even more chaotic.