Stage 1

The road

At the start

Bilbao, and a duel too close to call

The Tour begins in the Basque Country, and begins hard: 183 kilometres out of Bilbao and back, five categorised climbs, the last the Côte de Pike ten kilometres from the line. Tadej Pogačar has not raced since breaking his wrist at Liège in April; Jonas Vingegaard has been winning everything since. Nobody can separate them. Mark Cavendish, in his last Tour, is level with Merckx on thirty-four wins.

How it was won

1. 143 km to go

   Alto del Vivero

   Mikkel Bjerg sets a hyperactive tempo for Pogačar on the Vivero and the peloton splinters. On the descent EF's Tour unravels: Richard Carapaz crashes heavily and loses more than fifteen minutes, and Enric Mas abandons.

2. 29 km to go

   Côte de Pike

   On the steep Basque wall Pogačar and Vingegaard trade the first blows of their long duel. Over the top Adam Yates flicks a speculative dig on the false flat, his brother Simon jumps straight onto it, and the pair slip clear.

3. 36 km to go

   The Yates brothers go clear

   Adam and Simon build a ten-second lead over an elite group of thirteen chasers, riding away toward Bilbao together in the yellow-jersey twilight.

4. 4At the line

   Bilbao

   On the final drag Adam eases away from Simon to win the opening stage by four seconds and pull on the first yellow jersey of the Tour; Pogačar wins the bunch kick for third and snatches a bonus over Vingegaard.

The result