Tour de France 2025 Stage 1 recap – Jasper Philipsen in yellow after chaotic finale, Evenepoel and Roglic lose time in opening day drama

Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) and Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) were among a raft of big-name riders to lose valuable time in the opening stage of the Tour de France, won by Belgium’s Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck).

After the Visma-Lease a Bike team of Jonas Vingegaard blew the peloton apart in crosswinds inside the final 20 kilometres, Philipsen benefited from a perfect lead-out from team-mates Mathieu van der Poel and Kaden Groves to soar to the tenth stage win of his career ahead of Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty).

Crosswinds, crashes and withdrawals ensured that the opening 184km stage to and from Lille in northern France did not go to script.

But amid the chaos, Alpecin-Deceuninck kept a level head, delivering their man Philipsen to glory after rivals Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) and Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) were both caught out by the echelons.

With defending champion Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and his Danish rival Vingegaard on the right side of the split, the two pre-race favourites stole a march on many of the GC riders, notably Roglic and Evenepoel, who came home in the chase group 39 seconds in arrears alongside Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Mathias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek).

"It’s really amazing – this tenth victory is something I’ll never forget. The team performance was incredible, We were there all day, It was nervous all day and we knew we had to be on the front all day. We were there in the split and in the end we could use our strength and finish it off. Of course, I knew I had really good legs and the final two kilometres with all the spectators gave me goosebumps. I knew we had to do it. My legs gave me strength, and I had the adrenaline. It was an amazing feeling. All day there were big fights to stay on the front – so much stress for not a lot that happened. But then in the last 15km it all opened up and I’m so glad we took the opportunity. I already had the green jersey from two years ago, but to have a yellow jersey handing up in my house is going to be amazing."

Here's how Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) took the win:

Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike) conceded over six minutes while Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious) was last to cross the line, 9’11" down on the stage winner Philipsen, who dons yellow.

Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) led the second chaser group home 39 seconds down on what must have been a frustrating debut for the Italian, who missed out on the chance to compete for yellow.

Primoz Roglic, Remco Evenepoel, Florian Lipowitz, Mattias Skjelmose, Joao Almeida, Felix Gall, Santiago Buitrago and Carlos Rodriguez were among the GC riders who were also in that group and conceded valuable time in the opening stage.

1. Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck)
2. Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty)
3. Soren Waerenskjold (Uno-X Mobility)
4. Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies)
5. Matteo Trentin (Tudor Pro Cycling)
6. Clement Russo (Groupama-FDJ)
7. Paul Penhoet (Groupama-FDJ)
8. Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike)
9. Marius Mayrhofer (Tudor Pro Cycling)
10. Samuel Watson (Ineos Grenadiers)

Alpecin-Deceuninck pull it off with Van der Poel and Groves leading out their man, who closes the deal with aplomb – holding off Biniam Girmay and then putting his hands to his helmet in disbelief as he realises the yellow jersey is his. Wow – what a nail-biting final.

That's Philipsen's 10th Tour stage win of his career...

And it looks like it’s going to be a Uno-X vs Alpecin battle as the two teams swing under the banner with around seven or eight riders between them on the front… But Girmay still lurks with intent!

The Norwegian team have four on the front but have Tudor and Alpecin right in their wheel. Final kilometre coming up. This is super stressful and chaotic.

It’s just within the 5km zone but that’s far from ideal for the Aussie GC rider, who goes over the handlebars after Marijn van den Berg hits the deck right in front of him. That was unavoidable for the Jayco rider.

Jasper Philipsen has four team-mates including Kaden Groves and Mathieu van der Poel, so you’d expect them to be favourites, what with their sprint train intact. Tim Wellens now drives the pace in his Belgian national champion’s jersey. Uno-X are also well represented. It’s all up for grabs.

The Visma rider has strung out the front group and their gap is up to 38 seconds over the chasers now. There are some big sprinters here in Philipsen, Groves, Girmay and Watson – but without their trains, and with so many opportunistic engines dreaming of yellow – they may struggle to contest the finale. Could we even see Pogacar have a pop?

Still 25 seconds for the leading group of around 40 riders but they have two minutes on the third group. It’s worth adding that Red Bull don’t even have Lipowitz in the first group – bad day for them.

The first group – which includes Pogacar, Vingegaard, Van der Poel and many others – has 25 seconds on that second group, with Roglic, Evenepoel, Milan and Merlier. It’s pretty chaotic and we’re still trying to work out who’s where. There’s also a third and fourth group, so the damage could be HUGE!

Biniam Girmay is in the front group, ditto Jasper Philipsen, Kaden Groves and Sam Watson.

It looks like Primoz Roglic isn’t in this main group, which does include the Big Two – Pogacar and Vingegaard. Evenepoel is in the second group – and momentarily ran off the road there before taking evasive action. The Belgian is in a group with sprinters Jonathan Milan and Tim Merlier, who could miss out. What drama on the Tour – as so often is the case on the first day.

Hello… And Visma’s increase in tempo has strung out the peloton and then smashed it to smithereens. We have numerous splits in the pack and many big name GC riders and sprinters could have been caught out.

The Giro champion has been yo-yoing a fair bit today – nothing as bad as Lenny Martinez, but noticeable nonetheless. He said he didn’t want to lose any time in the opening week so that he could play the GC game for Visma if necessary – but perhaps he’s also feeling ill? Either that or he’s just been unlucky with mechanicals. Yates is currently with Thibau Nys, who crashed earlier, and Matteo Vercher, who was in both breaks, then crashed over the second summit.

Meanwhile, on the front of the pack it’s a melange of Movistar, Uno-X, Visma, EF and Astana all pulling hard.

The Dane has already been off the back after an earlier issue and he’s at it again just as the tempo goes up. Skjelmose has one Lidl-Trek rider with him but they cannot commit more because they need to protect Milan ahead of the sprint. With so many central reservations and traffic calming measures on the road, it’s a dangerous segment of road they’re currently on and it’s keeping them all on their toes. No counter attacks for now, it looks like everyone will accept the sprint as the final outcome.

We’ve mentioned the favourites for stage and yellow glory today but there’s a whole host of other sprinters who could cause a surprise. They include Kaden Groves, Pavel Bittner, Arnaud De Lie, Phil Bauhaus, Arnaid Demare, Bryan Coquard, Marijn van den Berg, Pascal Ackermann, Paul Penhoet, Danny van Poppel, Jake Stewart, Soren Waerenskjold, Alberto Dainese, Emilien Jeanniere, Sam Watson, Magnus Cort and even Fred Wright.

But surely, for all their ability, the prize will be won by one of Milan, Merlier, Philipsen, Girmay or Groenewegen.

It’s forcing the riders to fight for position and try to push on towards the front, so tensions stay high and we’re but a touch of wheels away from disaster. It’s a wide road and the Red Bull team-mates of Primoz Roglic are gathered on the right along with EF Education-EasyPost, who don’t really have a GC man now that Richard Carapaz has been ruled out with illness.

Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious) must be ill because once again he’s been dropped by the pack. The poor Frenchman has been in a world of pain today, constantly battling back on after letting the elastic snap. He'll be just happy to get to the finish right now.