A nice debut for Elie Gesbert
First man on the road and youngest rider of the 104th Tour de France, Elie Gesbert (Fortuneo-Oscaro) who celebrated his 22nd birthday had the best time for less than two minutes before Italian sprinter Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrein-Merida) took the first position. Third man in the lead was Andrei Grivko (Astana) at the average speed of 51.376km/h. But Nikias Arndt (Sunweb) pleased the German fans as he rode one second faster than him in 16.20. Matteo Trentin (Quick-Step Floors) was next in first position with the time of 16.14. The joy of the Italian was short lived as former world champion Vassil Kiryienka (Sky) took three seconds less to cover the 14km under the rain at 51.905km/h.
Alejandro Valverde crashed and abandoned
Team Sky continued to perform as Geraint Thomas bettered the time of his team-mate in 16.04 at the average speed of 52.282km/h. The road remained slippery and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) had a bad crash in a curve. He was forced to pull out of the Tour de France at the difference of other riders who went down like Nicolas Roche (BMC), Rick Zabel (Katusha-Alpecin), Dylan Groenewegen and George Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo).
Party time for Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome
Informed of Roche's accident, Richie Porte (BMC) didn't take any risks. He rode 35 seconds slower than arch-rival Chris Froome (Sky), while Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Romain Bardet (AG2R-La Mondiale) and Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) finished 36, 39 and 42 seconds down on the defending champion respectively. The whole Team Sky could celebrate as Thomas remained in the lead and took his first yellow jersey ever. Second of stage 1 at five seconds, Stefan Küng (BMC) became the best young rider on his Tour de France debut like his Swiss compatriots Alex Zülle (1992) and Fabian Cancellara (2004) previously.
