Stage 1

The road

At the start

Brussels, fifty years after Merckx

The Tour starts in Brussels, fifty years after Eddy Merckx won the first of his five, and it crosses the Muur van Geraardsbergen and the Bosberg in his honour. They are calling it the most open Tour in memory: Chris Froome and Tom Dumoulin are both at home injured, and Geraint Thomas arrives off a crash at the Tour de Suisse — the race his 22-year-old teammate Egan Bernal went on to win.

How it was won

1. 199 km to go

   Van Avermaet over the Muur

   The local hero Greg Van Avermaet leads the early break up the hallowed cobbles of the Muur van Geraardsbergen to claim the first polka-dot jersey of the Tour.

2. 269 km to go

   Bora sow chaos on the pavé

   On the cobbled sector at Thiméon before the intermediate sprint, Bora-Hansgrohe drive hard for Sagan and split the peloton into three — Viviani, Dan Martin and Simon Yates all caught on the wrong side.

3. 32 km to go

   Crash inside the final 2km

   As the sprint teams wind up, a big crash brings down Dylan Groenewegen and much of his lead-out, wrecking the favourite's chances at the very last moment.

4. 4At the line

   Teunissen's shock yellow

   In the reshuffle Mike Teunissen surges up the outside and throws his bike to pip Peter Sagan by inches — an unlikely stage win and the first yellow jersey of the race, standing in for his crashed sprinter.

The result