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Tour de France stage 1 report: Yates vs. Yates on a frenetic opening stage

Adam gets the best of brother Simon in a two-up finish on the opening stage.

Adam and Simon Yates in a breakaway of brothers on stage 1 of the 2023 Tour de France. Photo © Bernard Papon/Cor Vos

Joe Lindsey
by Joe Lindsey 01.07.2023 Photography by
Cor Vos
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Adam Yates made good on UAE Team Emirates designating him as co-leader with Tadej Pogačar, breaking away on the final climb and descent of stage 1 with his twin brother Simon and pulling away slightly in the final 200 meters to take the stage victory and first yellow jersey of the 2023 Tour de France. Here’s what you need to know:

Only one museum in the world looks like that

Brief results

  1. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) 4:42:49
  2. Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla) @ :04
  3. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): @ :12
  4. Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ)
  5. Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech) @ same time

General Classification

  1. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) 4:42:49
  2. Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla) @ :08
  3. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): @ :18
  4. Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) @ :22
  5. Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech) @ same time

Snap analysis

Steep climbs, big crowds, lots of orange. Photo © Vincent Kalut/Nico Vereecken Cor Vos

Tomorrow’s stage

Stage 2 of the Tour is another lumpy one. The time gaps today may settle things a touch, but with sharp climbs and big crowds, it’ll likely be another nervous day. The 209 km stage from Vitoria-Gasteiz to San Sebastian is the longest in the race, and while it features slightly less climbing than stage 1 (just shy of 3,000 meters), it’s almost all backloaded. The focus is the Jaizkibel climb, 20 km from the finish. It’s well-known to riders from the San Sebastian Donostia Klasikoa one-day race. On paper, the 8.1 km at a 5.4% average is no big deal, but the steepest sections are in the second half of the climb. The ascent is always pivotal in San Sebastian and we expect it to be Sunday as well.

Brothers in arms: Adam and Simon share a moment after the 1-2 finish on stage 1. Photo © Cor Vos

Quote of the day

“That last climb was just pure suffering and also a bit crazy with the fans, being almost crashed three times by Basque flags in the brakes.”

-Jai Hindley on the atmosphere on the Côte de Pike

Best of social media

As Hindley observed, the Basque fans are legendarily, um, enthusiastic about bike racing, which might need to be (physically) restrained a bit, as this tweet shows:

TV cameras didn’t catch the full crash, but here’s the moment when things went really pear-shaped for Mas and Carapaz:

Additional reading

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