Yellow Taken In Barcelona! 🟡 | Men's Tour de France Stage 1 Race Highlights

Hello and welcome to highlights of the opening stage of the Tour de France, the 113th edition of the Grands Boucles, a team time trial in and around the streets of Barcelona. All of the big favourites here including Johannes Finkiel, Tadej Pogacar and Paul Seixas. What can the Frenchman do in this race? Here's the profile, 19.6 kilometers, relatively flat opening 14ks with a couple of small climbs near the end, including the Côte de Montjuïc and then ending up with a punchy climb to the line at the Côte d'Ustad Olympique. So gently uphill for the vast majority, up, down and then a nasty punch to the line. Alpecin Primatec were very very quick on course, they've been training in the wind tunnel and set a very fast time at the opening intermediate split and then this man opening things up, Mathieu van der Poel eyeing another yellow jersey and they were to unseat, a very good time set by Groupama FDJ, just under three seconds quick for Alpecin Primatec. Next en route, Netcompany Ineos, a second place and a first place in this particular discipline this year, definitely one of the favourites with a stacked team, Bernal, Arendsman, Vos, Ganner, Godin, Kwiatkowski, Tarling and Vaucoulin, but unfortunately the Frenchman who was the favourite to lead the team across the line and suffered a puncture and unfortunately was dropped by the team. Bad bad luck, so the team completely had to reconfigure. Tobias Vos leading out, Filippo Ganner on to the short climb to the line. They'd already done a lot of the work but this man had to go again. What a ride it was by Ganner and his squad, 31 seconds quicker than Alpecin Primatec. Then out on the road, French hopeful Paul Cexas with his Decathlon CMA CGM team. He was dropped off by Matthew Riccitello. It wasn't gonna be the best ride on the day for the team but good enough at that point for second place. Another stacked squad for the team time trial was a Lidl Trek and they set a very fast intermediate split. Looking good out on the road, Ayuso, G West, Simmons and the rest. Derek G West was the third man to drop off near the end, setting this man up for the finale. Juan Ayuso firing himself up the finishing straight. It was to be a superb time eyeing the yellow jersey. It wasn't to be though, seven seconds slower than net company Ineos. Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe featuring the world champion at the individual time trial, the olympic champion in the road race and the olympic time trial. The best TT rider of his generation led them into the first corner and they were absolutely flying out on course as well but they were slowest, well they were slower should I say at the intermediate split. Florin Lipovic dropping off Rimco Evenepoel into the final drag to the line. Evenepoel gave it absolutely everything but in the end it wasn't to be. Still a very strong performance by the Belgian and his team. The clock stopping 10 seconds shy of the time set by net company Ineos. Team Visma-Lisebike out on the road. The penultimate team to set off on this 19.6 kilometer time trial. Vingago, Afini, Amarai, Campenaerts, Hagners, Jorgensen, Kuss and Piganzoli and coming into the final. The third man from the end to drop off was Matteo Jorgensen setting up Piganzoli. There's a short turn on the front and then Jonas Vingago was flying up the final climb to the line. What a ride it was by Visma-Lisebike. The clock stopped and they had set the fastest time 53.95 kilometers an hour. The best time. One more team to go and of course it was the team of the defending champion Tadej Pogacar. UEE team Emirates. Nils Pollitt had done his job and then coming into the final stages Brandon McNulty, the former American TT champion. He swung off leading the incredible duo of Isaac Del Toro and Tadej Pogacar to head into the final. Up Montjuic down and then up the final climb into the Côte d'Ustad Olympique. Del Toro was done and then this man lit the afterburners but it wasn't to be. Despite setting the fastest individual time up the climb the clock stopped at 11.28. Good enough for third place on the day for his team and not too far behind it was Isaac Del Toro. That can mean only one thing. For the first time since 2023 Jonas Vingago was back in yellow and team Visma-Lisebike had taken the team time trial in some fashion. What a start for the Dane. An absolutely wonderful team performance timing everything to perfection and finishing things off. So Visma-Lisebike taking the win ahead of Nett Company in the Austria at seven seconds. UEE team Emirates at third and then Little Trek, Red Bull, Bora-Hansgrohe there just behind. What a day for this squad. Smiles all round and the general classification looks like this. Heading into stage two Jonas Vingago taking the jersey. Eight seconds clear of Filippo Ganna. Then we have Pogacar, Ayuso, Evner Paul, Del Toro, Paganzoni, Lipariks, Voss and Cexas. So another day in the a three-year wait and a big smile on the face of Jonas Vingago. It's something special in cycling. It's for me if not the most iconic jersey in cycling then up there in the top three and yeah it's just amazing to have it on my shoulders again. I mean the two tours that I've had it before has been so amazing and as I said before it's been a few tough years for me but I don't want to be hanged up too much on that. Of course I'm the one saying it but to be now in the yellow jersey is just something I will try to enjoy. It's the Tour de France it's a lot of stress but you can also enjoy being in the yellow jersey. In general the plan was different from the other teams so three in the wheel and so you came like just for the last two climbs actually. Yeah I have to say that it was quite fresh in the last part. I mean on the wheel you saved quite a lot so yeah we just went full the last moment and then yeah super happy. And what about finishing in starting the tour the way you finish the Giro actually more or less? Yeah for sure the start here in Barcelona is something special something different than the Giro. Super nice to be able to be a part of this team. Considering everything we did a good TT we lost a few guys a bit too soon maybe but I think yeah we can be happy with how we prepared and how we rode today. For me the legs were quite good actually so I'm happy. Today I suppose you were expecting another jersey. Are you disappointed? No I'm really happy we did super good performance. Of course we yeah you always aim for the victory but I think we did a really good super team time trial and yeah I think it's just I'm super happy also the day is over. It was it's super it's really hard to to do this day. It's long and you prepare for just this 20 minutes with the team. It's really stressful and but I enjoyed it today. It was a long time since I did a team time trial and yeah actually it was really good performance and we can be happy with today and go really motivated for the next days. So what a day for Jonas Fingo and his team Visma Lisa Bike Squad. Tadej Pogacar was the fastest on the climb he moves into the polka dot jersey lead. Egan Bernal he's at the fastest point at the intermediate split so goes into the green jersey and finally is in white ahead of stage two. Tarragona to Barcelona with a punchy finale.