The 2025 Tour de France started Saturday with stage 1 – a 184.9-kilometer stage in flat terrain on a route from Lille Metropole and back. The Tour de France is the second Grand Tour of the season and stage one was expected to culminate in a sprint royale in the city of Lille. The start list of this year’s Tour de France featured several prominent sprinters, and the windy conditions of the high north might spoil their chances of success, if the peloton was to split into multiple echelons.

The start list of Tour de France 2025 included World Champion Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), Remco Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma-Lease a Bike), Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep), Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious), Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates), Mattias Skjelmose (Team Lidl-Trek), Enric Mas (Movistar), Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep), Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), and Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty).

Stage 1 of Tour de France started in Lille, near the Belgian border. Lille is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region in the Nord department. Combined with its suburbs, it is the fourth-largest city of France after Paris, Lyon, and Marseille. Lille became a great industrial capital after the industrial revolution and was known for its coal and textile production and its mechanical industries. 

Lille was revived through the construction of its Euralille business district in 1988, the arrival of TGV and Eurostar rail lines in the mid-nineties, as well as its international airport. Tourists are attracted by its historic city center Old Lille, which is dominated by paved streets, 17th century red brick town houses, and its Grand Place town square.

The weather conditions at the start line of stage 1 of Tour de France 2025 were partly cloudy, with moderate to strong winds (26 km/h, gusts 47 km/h) and temperatures around twenty-three degrees Celsius. 

Several Frenchmen were eager to join the early breakaway on French soil, so multiple attacks were launched shortly after the start of stage 1. Mathis Le Berre (Arkea B & B Hotels), Bruno Armirail (Decathlon-AG2R), Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis), and Matteo Vercher (Team TotalEnergies) jumped up the road and formed a gap. 

The four French riders in the breakaway were joined by Germany’s Jonas Rutsch of Team Intermarche-Wanty and the quintet quickly formed a lead of more than two minutes over the chasing peloton, which was spearheaded by Quinn Simmons of Lidl-Trek and Silvan Dillier together with other teammates from Alpecin-Deceuninck.

After a fierce battle between the five riders in the breakaway, Benjamin Thomas was the first rider to reach the summit of Cote de Notre Dame de Lorette and secured the points for the best climber classification.

Filippo Ganna (Ineos-Grenadiers) crashed with Sean Flynn (Picnic-PostNL) with 133 kilometers left of the stage. Stefan Bissegger was the next rider to crash. The Swiss rider from Team Decahtlon-AG2R went down when 129 kilometers remained. Thibaut Nys switched bikes, and the Lidl-Trek rider struggled to rejoin to the peloton.

Filippo Ganna had fought hard to return to the peloton following his hard crash. The Italian time trial specialist only made it back to the main peloton with 112 kilometers left as the speed was intense with the bunch being spearheaded by riders from several teams that were protecting their interests in the side winds.

A group featuring general classification outsider Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious) had lost contact with the main peloton and was chasing forty seconds back.

Matteo Vercher got dropped from the breakaway group and the remaining four frontmen pressed on, but now with a narrow lead of 42 seconds. The front quartet was then reeled in with 105 kilometers left.

Jonathan Milan won the intermediate sprint and banked points for the points classification. Matteo Vercher tried his luck for Team TotalEnergies in a courageous solo attack shortly thereafter. Benjamin Thomas was not done attacking either and the Frenchman launched a chase effort after breaking from the peloton.

The front duo entered the cobbled Mont Cassel climb (Category 4) with a lead of one minute over the chasing main peloton. Filippo Ganna was still suffering behind the main peloton following his crash. The front duo crashed when they launched a sprint battle for the summit points for the KOM best climber classification. The cobbled streets had made it difficult to control the bikes. Thomas was first across the summit line but took down Vercher in the crash.

With Thomas and Vercher caught, echelons started forming in the peloton in the strong winds of the following kilometers. The riders later regrouped, but Frenchman Lenny Martinez was still suffering within the team car caravan and was joined by five other riders.

Filippo Ganna abandoned the race. What a blow for Italian fans and not least the British Ineos-Grenadiers team and its ambitions in this year’s Tour. Beyond chasing a time trial victory, Ganna was an important lieutenant for team captains Geraint Thomas and Carlos Rodriguez in the race.

Riders from Ineos-Grenadiers, UAE Team Emirates, Groupama-FDJ, Visma-Lease a Bike, and Alpecin-Deceuninck were sharing the load at the front of the peloton as the riders climbed Mont Noir, which was a minor Category 4 bump with 45 kilometers to the finish line in Lille. Jonas Vingegaard was the first rider to reach the summit and earned a KOM classification point. Meanwhile, Stefan Bissegger had abandoned the race due to injuries sustained in a crash. Lenny Martinez was again chasing within the team car caravan, 14 seconds back.

All riders were together in the peloton when 27 kilometers remained. The sprinter teams in the peloton were starting to prepare for a mass sprint royale finish of the stage while closely monitoring the risk of late attacks and splits in the cross winds.

Ivan Romeo got dropped from the peloton and the Movistar rider was now chasing one minute behind with twenty-one kilometers left together with riders such as Axel Laurance, Thibau Nys, Edoardo Affini, Simon Yates, Warren Barguil, Louis Barre, and Mathieu Burgaudeau.

The winds were strong with sixteen kilometers left before the stage finish in Lille. Echelons formed and splits had been established. Jonas Vingegaard was in the first group together with Tadej Pogacar and approximately thirty other riders. Remco Evenepoel had been caught in group two together with Primoz Roglic and Mattias Skjelmose. Thirteen kilometers remained.

The first group continued to increase its advantage and had a lead of thirty seconds with ten kilometers to the finish line. Beyond Pogacar and Vingegaard, the group also included several sprinters, including Marijn van den Berg, Biniam Girmay, Jasper Philipsen, Kaden Groves, and Ivan Garcia Cortina.

Mathieu van der Poel attacked from the front group and was joined by three other riders, but the rest of the group caught up. The group also included GC hopefuls Ben O’Connor and Enric Mas.

Five kilometers remained and the group was preparing for a sprint finish while the general classification favorites were working hard to secure as big a time difference as possible to the GC competitors who had been caught in group 2 or further back. Marijn van den Berg crashed with Ben O’Connor with four kilometers left. Bad luck for Team EF Education-EasyPost.

Riders from Uno-X Mobility moved to the front of the first group with two kilometers to go. The team had four riders in the group. Alpecin-Deceuninck riders joined the front for Philipsen and van der Poel.

Alpecin-Deceuninck riders led the group into the final kilometer. Jasper Philipsen launched his sprint and won stage 1 of Tour de France 2025 for Alpecin-Deceuninck ahead of Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty), Soren Waerenskjold (Uno-X Mobility), and Anthony Turgis of Team TotalEnergies.

“We were there in the sprint and the team did amazing. What a great feeling to finish it off. I knew I had really good legs and all the fans along the fences gave me goosebumps and the adrenalin made it an incredible feeling,” stage winner Jasper Philipsen explained to Roadcycling.com.

“The competition is really hard and there are many strong sprinters here at the Tour. The guys did an amazing job throughout the stage to keep us at the front. Today was a great opportunity for us and we took it. I have dreamed of the yellow jersey and to have it hanging on the wall in my house in the coming years will be amazing for me,” Philipsen added.

Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar finished the stage in group 1 and gained valuable time on general classification competitors such as Remco Evenepoel, Matias Skjelmose and Primoz Roglic, Carlos Rodriguez, and Geraint Thomas who were all in group 2, which crossed the finish line 38 seconds later.

Lenny Martinez finished the stage alone with a time loss of more than nine minutes.

Jasper Philipsen leads the Tour de France and will wear the yellow jersey in Sunday’s stage 2.

Stay tuned to Roadcycling.com for complete coverage from the 2025 Tour de France.