Tour de France 2025 Stage 1

July 5, 2025 The Tour de France returns for the Grand Départ in Lille, a city of culture and industry, for three stages in the Hauts-de-France Region, the Department of Nord, and the Lille European Metropolis. The first stage runs 185KM from Lille to Lille and covers just over 1,000M of elevation. The riders leave the Grand Place and head South to Lens before starting to swing back North for the first categorized four climb of the race, the Côte de Notre-Dame-de-Lorette. Continuing North, the riders reach the Intermediate Sprint in La Motte-au-Bois before taking on the Mont Cassel and Mont Noir. Mont Noir tops out 45KM before a completely flat run back into Lille for a likely sprint on the Boulevard Vauban. Extreme heat had afflicted most of Europe over the last week, including Northern France, but clouds rolled in making things much cooler for perfect racing conditions. A long neutral zone allowed the hundreds of thousands of fans to see their favorite riders pass by as well as all of the newly crowned national champions. Christian Prudhomme emerged from the vehicle after 10KM of neutral riding and waived the flag at KM0. The first attacker of the race was Mattéo Vercher of TotalEnergies. He was followed by Bruno Armirail of Decathlon AG2R, Jonas Rutsch of Intermarché-Wanty, Benjamin Thomas of Cofidis, and Mathis Le Berre of Arkéa-B&B Hotels. The bunch shut down almost immediately and the group was gone. Silvan Dillier of Alpecin-Deceuninck started riding when the gap got to 90 seconds. He was joined by Quinn Simmons of Lidl-Trek and the pair pegged the break at 2 minutes 20 seconds. The break came to the first categorized climb of the Côte de Notre-Dame-de-Lorette with 144.5KM to go. The first to attack was Armirail but it was way too long still with 800M to the top. The group settled down until Thomas went at 200M. Vercher tried to get on but Thomas took the solitary point on offer at the top in between rows and rows of cheering fans. Teams started to push towards the front with 135KM to go which elevated the nerves and the speed. Filippo Ganna of Ineos, Thibau Nys of Lidl-Trek, and Stefan Bissegger of Decathlon AG2R all crashed and were minutes behind. Ganna and Bissegger got back up but eventually were forced to abandon due to their injuries. The break were greeted in Béthune by enormous crowds but their gap was under 1 minute with 119KM to go. They were caught just 14KM later under the constant pressure of the GC teams to stay at the front. The first battle for the Green Sprint Jersey points in La Motte-au-Bois was won by Jonathan Milan of Lidl-Trek. The first moments of calm came after the sprint which gave the opportunity for more attackers. Vercher was the first to go and few moments later, Thomas leapt from the bunch in pursuit. They joined forces and got to the base of the cobbled Mont Cassel in front for the Mountains Points with a 1 minute gap. Thomas and Vercher went back and forth as they neared the top. Vercher got a jump and was leading but Thomas came rushing forward 50M from the line. Thomas threw his bike forward and took the point but in doing so, lost his front wheel on the cobbles and crashed. Vercher had nowhere to go and came down as well. The bunch got to the top 25 seconds later as Vercher and Thomas were painfully remounting their bikes. The front of the peloton remained blocked across the road all the way to, and over, Mont Noir. Thomas had picked up two points in the Mountains Classification and could not be beaten by the end of the day which settled the bunch down. The race continued in a holding pattern until 17.5KM to go when Visma-Lease a Bike instigated echelons that split the bunch. Soudal Quickstep missed out with both Tim Merlier and Remco Evenepoel and Lidl-Trek had Milan in the second group as well. About 40 riders made the front with Visma-Lease a Bike and Alpecin-Deceuninck doing a lot of the work. Under 10KM to go, the gap was 30 seconds. 5KM later, a crash took down a few riders in the front including Ben O'Connor of Jayco AlUla as well as EF-Education EasyPost's sprinter Marijn van den Berg but fortunately they were inside the banner and were given the same time as the lead group. Uno-X Mobility led into the final kilometer but Alpecin-Deceuninck had numbers and took over the front. Joseph Blackmore of Israel-Premier Tech took a flyer on the left side of the road but Alpecin-Deceunink had it under control. Jasper Philipsen had the perfect lead out and when he opened his sprint, he quickly passed Blackmore and kept tight on the barriers to prevent anyone coming on his right. He kept his speed all the way to the line to take the stage win and collect the first Yellow Jersey of the race. Biniam Girmay of Intermarché-Wanty was next best, just ahead of Søren Wærenskjold of Uno-X Mobility. Jonathan Milan led the second group in, 39 seconds after Philipsen crossed the line. It's a lot of time to lose for those in the seconds group, mainly Evenepoel and Primož Roglič, on what was a hectic and difficult day.