Stage 1 TDF 2023 Blog: Oh Brother!

Adam Yates won the first stage of the 2023 Tour de France, cracking his brother Simon on the uphill drag to the line in Bilbao.

It was a great stage in the Basque Country, with decent weather and large, enthusiastic crowds.

The break included Liliane Calmejane (Intermarché), Simon Gugliemi (Arkéa), Valentin Ferron (Total), Jonas Gregaard (Uno-X) and Pascal Eenkhorn (Lotto-Dstny).

The break was caught and the race came back together.

The action started to simmer on the penultimate climb, the Cote de Vivero. Mikkel Bjerg (UAE) led the race with a face of pain. Later Dylan van Baarle (Jumbo Visma) took over the work.

Neilson Powless was first over the top, collecting 5 KOM points. He takes the polka-dot jersey.

On the descent, Richard Carapaz (EF) and Enric Mas (Movistar) crashed. After some time, Carapaz could continue albeit clearly in some pain; Mas is out of the race.

The Cote de Pike was the key point in the race. Felix Grossschartner did a strong turn on the front, which helped to dislodge some of the stage favourites such as Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel.

First over the top of the Pike were Adam Yates, Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard and Victor Lafay (Cofidis). Simon Yates, Mattias Skjelmose and David Gaudu were not far behind.

On the descent the Yates brothers, Simon and Adam, got a gap which they extended to around 20 seconds.

It became clear that it was between the two of them for the stage win. Adam rode away from Simon with the line nearly in sight. Adam takes the first yellow jersey.

Pogacar won the sprint for third, and takes 4 bonus seconds.

Video Highlights

This is the last kilometre. This is the post-race interview with the winner.

These are the video highlights.

Old Favourites

The Tour de France means welcoming back old favourites among the riders and the commentators.

Tim Declercq (Soudal Quick-Step) on the front is very Tour de France. He has taken over from Luke Rowe, who used to lead the peloton for mile after mile in Team Sky days and later for the oil and SUV sponsors.

Ned Boulting and David Millar on ITV are a good team. They manage to talk for the requisite number of hours without being irritating – which is an achievement.

Cadel Evans provided some good expert analysis, and chimed well with Millar.

Adverts

I hardly watch any TV with adverts throughout the year, so it’s a shock when the Tour de France on ITV4 comes around and I’m subjected to them. Obviously the goal of advertisers is to manipulate viewers into parting with their money.

It’s largely charities and good causes using advertising to tug at viewers’ heartstrings. There’s a very uncomfortable contradiction between the fantastic organisations doing the advertising, and the cynical, manipulative tactics employed by the advertisers.

I could end up broke by the end of the Tour de France, or I could have a heart of stone and hold onto my money.