UAE takes the first yellow jersey of the Tour de France 2023. Enric Mas retires

As expected, things have happened in a first stage of the Tour de France 2023 that, above all, has become the real party that was anticipated with the enthusiastic Basque public crowding the roadsides en masse, especially on the ascent to Pike Bidea where Pogacar and Vingegaard tested their strength. Drama in Movistar Team with the abandonment by crash of its leader Enric Mas.

Adam Yates gives UAE Team Emirates the 2023 Tour de France leadership

Spectacular start of the Tour de France 2023 in Vizcaya with a stage that, far from the usual short time trial or a flat stage for sprinters, was a real trap through the broken geography of the Basque province. A day that, like a good movie, had a plot that developed as the kilometers progressed to give us a thrilling outcome.

However, not everything has been positive on this day. As usually happens throughout the first week of the Tour, this one has begun to claim its first victims and, at the first signs of change, we have lost two of the contenders for the final podium in Paris. Enric Mas and Richard Carapaz suffered a crash on the descent of the Vivero, the penultimate climb of the day, already in the last 20 kilometers. Enric, visibly in pain with a strong blow to his scapula, was forced to abandon the stage, while Carapaz, with a lot of courage, got back on the bike despite the serious blow to his knee to finish the stage more than 15 minutes behind the winner.

The day began with the peloton surrounded by crowds through the streets of Bilbao for, already outside the metropolitan area, the official start flag was given and quickly began the attacks that, despite what we could foresee, fructified in the breakaway of the day at the first time. This first adventure was composed by Lilian Calmejane, Simon Guglielmi, Pascal Eenkhoorn, Jonas Gregaard and Valentin Ferron who, despite the permissiveness of the peloton when it came to let them go, did not give them a truce beyond a minute and a half of difference.

Thus the kilometers would advance through the beautiful landscapes of the Basque coast, passing by places as globally recognizable as the hermitage of San Juan de Gatelugatxe, imortalized in the famous series Game of Thrones. Tense calm in the race until the second pass through the town of Gernika, prior to the final chain of climbs with the ascents to Morga, known by many cyclists for being one of the top climbs of the Bilbao-Bilbao march; Vivero, also integrated for some years in this march and already visited by events such as La Vuelta or Itzulia; and the explosive finish at the wall of Pike Bidea with its very hard ramps of up to 20%.

The approach to Morga was the point chosen by the peloton, 51 km to the finish, to put an end to the breakaway of the day and begin to accelerate the pace to limits of true madness that made that, in a 4th category climb, people began to drop from the peloton. A pace that would not stop on the descent, very fast and that left the riders almost at the foot of El Vivero that started, again with a huge pace where UAE Team-Emirates and Jumbo-Visma had the upper hand.

With no movement, the descent was at full speed to leave no respite and it was at this point that Enric Mas and Richard Carapaz suffered their accident.

We arrived at the decisive ascent to Pike Bidea where the pattern of the previous climb was repeated with UAE forcing the pace and Jumbo-Visma at his side until Adam Yates took action and managed with his pace to isolate Jonas Vingegaard, in fact, left the race with only four riders in the lead: Adam Yates, Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard at his wheel and as a spectator of luxury the Cofidis rider Victor Lafay.

When Adam Yates finally broke away, just a few hundred meters from the summit, Pogacar took the lead looking to open up a gap but gave up after not finding the collaboration of Vingegaard, producing a small regrouping in which Adam Yates, his brother Simon, David Gaudu, Carlos Rodriguez, Mikel Landa and the main men of Jumbo-Visma re-entered.

A break that Adam Yates took advantage of, already in the middle of the descent, to start, a move that was answered only by his brother. Both, as expected, understood each other perfectly, achieving a dozen seconds that were enough to reach the final slope that led to the finish. A last ascent where Adam made use of his greater explosiveness against the more climbing Simon to enter victorious under the finish arch and take, as an extra prize, the coveted yellow leader's jersey. Just 12 seconds later came the chasing group with Tadej Pogacar sprinting to get the remaining 4 seconds of bonus and win the first psychological battle with Jonas Vingegaard.

Stage 1 Classification

1. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) 4h22’49’’
2. Simon Yates (Jayco AlUla) +04’’
3. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) +12’’
4. Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) +12’’
5. Michael Woods (Israel-PremierTech) +12’’
6. Victor Lafay (Cofidis) +12’’
7. Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) +12’’
8. Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) +12’’
9. Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) +12’’
10. David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) +12’’