British rider Adam Yates (UAE) won the first stage of the Tour de France and therefore took the first yellow jersey of this 2023 edition, this Saturday July 1 in Bilbao. This victory was obtained under the nose of his twin, Simon Yates, who races for the Jayco AlUla team. The second from the last Dauphiné broke away with his runner-up in the descent of the Pike coast, 9 kilometers from the finish, to win with a four-second lead. His teammate, Slovenian Tadej Pogacar, sprinted out a small group of favorites who arrived twelve seconds later.
It is, at 30, the first stage victory on the Grande Boucle for Adam Yates who had already worn the yellow jersey for four days in 2020. The two main Tour de France favorites, Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar neutralized. They crossed the formidable Pike Hill in the lead (2 kilometers at 10%) in the company of Frenchman Victor Lafay, but without really attacking each other.
At one point, the Slovenian, who is coming back from a broken wrist, elbowed his Danish rival to take over, but the latter shook his head. In the descent to Bilbao, Adam Yates, who was promoted to co-leader of the UAE team, took the opportunity to launch the offensive and get the stage as well as the ten bonus seconds promised to the leader.
Pogacar also raised his arms as he crossed the line, to salute his teammate’s victory. Third in the stage, he also pocketed four bonus seconds. The Slovenian arrived at the head of a small group in which appeared, in addition to Vingegaard, the French David Gaudu and Thibaut Pinot, or even Wout Van Aert.
The two big losers of the day are the Spaniard Enric Mas, who retired after a fall on the descent of the penultimate climb of the day, falling at the same time as another contender for the podium, Richard Carapaz. The Ecuadorian was able to restart but lost all hope for the general classification after being on the ground for long minutes.
