It had been years since the first stage of the Tour, in line and completely flat, hadn't had such an impact on the ranking of the pretenders to the final success as the one that inaugurated edition no. 105 of the Grande Boucle, from Noirmoutier en l'Ile to Fontenay le Comte. That it was the first challenge between the strongest sprinters in the world, all present in France after deserting the Giro en masse, and that the first yellow jersey covered the shoulders of one of theirs was obvious, much less that Vincenzo Nibali was among the big names already with a lead of 51” over Chris Froome and Richie Porte and even 1'12 over Nairo Quintana.
Without, however, the Shark damning his soul, good and lucky only in avoiding falling – as happened to Froome and Porte five km from the finish – or puncturing – as happened to Quintana when there were only a few hundred meters to the neutralization of the last three km. It was impossible for the big names hit by the misfortune to return because the front group, with about sixty riders including Nibali, Dumoulin, Valverde and Landa, was going at breakneck speed with the sprinters' teams preparing for the first big sprint, a authentic parterre de roi of the sprint with the first yellow jersey up for grabs.
It was the Colombian Fernando Gaviria who won it with the power and authority that we met at last year's Giro, who hit the mark on his Tour debut by burning Peter Sagan, Marcel Kittel, Alexandre Kristoff in order. Nibali was eleventh first among the men standings. For Froome, who races this Tour chasing a fourth consecutive Grand Tour victory, it's an entirely unexpected uphill start. But the British champion, having put the hairy affair of salbutamol behind him, doesn't take it too much with the bad luck: “These are incidents that are part of the game. We are only at the beginning and Paris is very far away…”.
In everyone's eyes there is still his feat in Jafferau in the last Giro, a feat from other times that decided the pink race after a start that didn't show anything good. More problematic and worrying was the situation of Quintana, left to his own devices at the time of the puncture, with the Movistar flagship following Valverde and Landa in front. Unlike Froome, the Colombian is also destined to pay the price in tomorrow's team time trial in Cholet, 35 km with Team Sky among the big favorites ready to earn, perhaps even with interest, what Froome lost yesterday.
For Quintana, the risk of compromising the Tour already in the first week of the race is high. That's why Nibali, who doesn't like time trials, let alone team ones, was particularly satisfied with the treasure accumulated on Froome in the chaotic and unpredictable finale of the first stage.
