The Tour de France began with its first stage and Adam Yates (UAE Team) was the one who took the victory of the initial 182-kilometre journey starting and finishing in Bilbao, while the other news of the day was the withdrawal of the Olympic champion Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz, after a hard fall.
The Briton put on the first yellow jersey of the 110th edition of the competition with a time of 4:22:39 and had a very strong fight with his brother Simon for the lead. The twin belonging to Team Jayco-AlUla was part of the podium after being beaten by 8 seconds after Adam’s attack in the final 450 meters.
Tadej Pogocar completed the podium with that third position, achieving four seconds less than the chasing pack and 18′ behind the leader. The pursuers maintained a difference of 22 seconds. In the second group came the Colombian Egan Bernal who had mechanical problems with his pedals at the beginning of the stage and finally reached him to finish in 23rd place, with a distance of 43 seconds.
This was a rough stage that had the Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz as one of the protagonists. In what was estimated to be mid-mountain, nervousness was felt in the peloton. With 20 kilometers to go to the finish line, Carapaz could not contain an unforeseen event with another rider in the peloton and crashed to the ground.
The ‘Carchi Locomotive’ was left lying on the ground, showing great signs of pain. His left leg was bleeding.He tried to recover on his bike and thus finish the stage, giving up a total of 15 minutes and 24 seconds, with respect to the winner of the day.
After that, in recordings after the stage, the Ecuadorian was very affected. He trudged, helped by members of his team, the EF Easy Post. Already with the adrenaline of the competition lower, the pain became more evident. Hours later, the North American team confirmed the abandonment of the Latin American.
“Richard Carapaz will not participate in the second stage of the Tour de France, after an ultrasound revealed a small fracture in the left kneecap. He also needed three stitches to close the cut on the same knee. Richard suffered no other injuries in the accident and will be returning home to begin his recovery.
At the same time as Carapaz, the Spanish Enric Mas fell to the ground and suffered worse consequences. At the time of the accident, the Movistar Team rider could not recover and ended up saying goodbye to the race immediately.
After the medical examinations carried out, it was learned through the Spanish squad that Mas suffered multiple fractures that prevented him from continuing. “Enric suffered a right scapular fracture”, can be read in a statement issued after matchday 1.
As for the Colombians, the best of ours was Egan Bernal, who knew how to withstand the attacks and reached the finish line, losing only 33 seconds with the winner and 11 with Pogacar. Another of those who had great performances was Harold Tejada, who also lost the same number of seconds.
The Tour de France will continue this Sunday with the dispute of its second stage, of 208.9 kilometers and which will link Vitoria-Gasteiz and San Sebastián. It will be another undulating day between mountains and coast with a classic aroma, and of course, a Tour of the Basque Country. The ascent to Jaizkibel (2nd Cat. with 8.1 km at 5.3%) will be the great incentive with 16 minutes to go.
General ranking
1. Adam Yates (GBR/UAE Emirates) – 4:22:49
2. Simon Yates (GBR/Jayco-AlUla) at 0:04
3. Tadej Pogacar (SLO/UAE Emirates) at 0:12
4. Thibaut Pinot (FRA/Groupama-FDJ) at 0:12
5. Michael Woods (CAN/Israel-Premier Tech) at 0:12
6. Victor Lafay (FRA/Cofidis) at 0:12
7. Jai Hindley (AUS/Bora-Hansgrohe) at 0:12
8. Mattias Skjelmose (DEN/Lidl-Trek) at 0:12
9. Jonas Vingegaard (DEN/Jumbo-Visma) at 0:12
10. David Gaudu (FRA/Groupama-FDJ) at 0:12