Today’s Tour de France opening time trial saw Yves Lampert take the win in a surprise result. With a forecast for late rain, all of the pre-stage favourites went early only to see the weather not play out to plan. Conditions didn’t get perfect late on but Yves Lampaert found the sweet spot to set the fastest time by 5 seconds over countryman Wout van Aert.
Lampaert won the 13km time trial with a time of 15 minutes and 17 seconds in wet conditions that caught out some other riders. Stefan Bissegger was an early notable casualty, sliding off his bike twice on the course. That derailed any attempt from the Swiss rider who was considered a candidate for the yellow jersey. A mix of tarmac and cobblestones, with technical corners, made it tough for all of the riders.
The new Dutch national time trial champion Bauke Mollema was in the hot seat early until Mathieu van der Poel completed his ride. His stay in the hot seat was of a decent length, especially once the Olympic TT champion Primoz Roglic crossed the line 3 seconds slower than Van der Poel. Roglic had been more conservative in the corner than Van der Poel who held his sliding TT bike with aplomb.
“I have beaten the great Wout van Aert, it’s incredible – I never expected that. For now, I don’t understand. It’s the Tour de France, the best riders have completed the course and I’m in the lead.”
Yves Lampaert
Filippo Ganna took the lead but almost straight away lost it to Wout van Aert. He was the last of the stage favourites to finish for a long time and looked set for the stage victory until Yves Lampaert’s ride. He was 2 seconds behind Van Aert at the intermediate point but smashed the second half to finish ahead by 5 seconds.
“Yves is a specialist on short time trials and I’m happy for him, today was okay I didn’t feel any pain, it’s good. But it’s still a disappointment to finish second.”
Wout van Aert
Other contenders lost some more time, including Geraint Thomas. He said afterwards that the first half of the time trial was up there with the worst he’s ever ridden. He also had the hindrance of still having his gilet on having forgotten to unzip it before the start. With the rain still hammering down, it at least kept him a bit warmer and drier!
“I zipped it up, it was nice and snug – and I didn’t realise. The guy at the start didn’t notice, not that it was his fault. Once I went through that time check and I was 18 seconds down at the checkpoint, then I just took the pin out.”
Geraint Thomas
Saturday’s stage two is a 202.2 km flat stage from Roskilde to Nyborg.
