Stage 1

The road

At the start

Brest, and a Tour that starts uphill

The Grand Départ meant for Copenhagen opens instead in Brittany, and it opens hard: 198 kilometres, six climbs and a finish up the Côte de la Fosse aux Loups at Landerneau. Tadej Pogačar defends the Tour he took at 21; Primož Roglič has not raced since Liège; Ineos bring Thomas, Carapaz and Porte and no settled leader. Four days of narrow Breton roads to come.

How it was won

1. 183 km to go

   Schelling breaks the alliance

   Ide Schelling attacks his own breakaway companions, takes the mountain points and simply keeps going, building 2:23 on the men he escaped with. The move kills the break stone dead.

2. 263 km to go

   First blood in the green jersey war

   Schelling helps himself to the intermediate sprint, but the real contest is behind him: Ewan brushes aside Sagan and Matthews, the last two men to win the points classification.

3. 345 km to go

   The spectator with the sign

   Forty-five kilometres from Landerneau a spectator leans out into the road holding a cardboard sign towards the television cameras. Tony Martin has nowhere to go. He hits it, and behind him the Tour de France collapses in a heap — Roglič, Van Aert and almost all of Jumbo-Visma on the tarmac, López, Froome and Colbrelli among dozens held up. The race is neutralised to let them back on, but the damage done in this one second will shape the next three weeks.

4. 46 km to go

   A second pile-up

   Inside the final ten kilometres a touch of wheels sends riders spinning into the verge, spectators scattering, one woman hauling her child clear. Froome will crawl to the line; Porte loses 2:16 before the Tour has properly begun.

5. 52 km to go

   Alaphilippe attacks the Fosse aux Loups

   QuickStep deliver the world champion to the foot of the final ramp and he goes with 2.3km left. Van Aert, sitting second wheel, cannot even respond. Roglič and Pogačar chase and get nowhere.

6. 6At the line

   Yellow in Landerneau

   Alaphilippe holds off the remnants of the peloton to take the stage and the first maillot jaune of the 2021 Tour, twelve seconds up on Matthews.

The result