The tour kicks off with a hilly stage, that probably won't be too selective until the short finishing climb. Those slopes in the final though may give an opportunity to create small gaps: Van Garderen, Froome and Di Maggio as the favorites, just like defending race champion Ulissi or Rui Costa.
A first few breakaway attempts are all shut down by the pack:
#1: Balloni, Ignatiev, Thaouta, Oka
#2: Balloni, Oka
#3: Mandri, Konte
#4: Ignatiev, Bauer, Er Rafai, M Van Niekerk
The latter move as the succesful then, as three of those riders manage to form the break of the day:
Bauer Ignatiev Er Rafai
Which is also the order of the first intermediate sprint with now 134km remaining and the peloton finally slowing down after a quite hectic first part of the stage.
Slicky roads and a tricky corner, plus the rather high pace early into the stage.. that's causing quite a lot of crashes in the first quarter of the stage. Something we never want to see, but it's many riders involved in at least three early accidents:
A shocker with still 144km to go at that point and while most of those big names are brought back to the pack quickly, it's some horrible news for Quevedo, who has to abandon from the race - just when it began. Mohoric though looks fine after the fall.
There are two more notable crashes and some more well known riders are involved:
Kreder Mehr-Wenige King Konte Boaro
go down in the second bigger crash of the day, and the next one:
Hategeka Khederi Pavarin Kuboki
They all can continue and at least the GC contenders look rather fine and catch up to the pack soon after their crashes. Opposing to Goncalves, who's the next rider, who has to abandon from the race already in the first stage. Definitely another notable name to quit the race, as he's been a key to the TTT setup for his team.
Bauer dominates the breakaway and after already taking the first of two intermediate sprints, the experienced Kiwi also sprints to a comfortable lead in the KoM competition:
KoM: Bauer 21, Er Rafai 11, Ignatiev 7
The peloton (down to 105 riders after all those crashes) is on the chase, trailing by 3 minutes with 60km remaining.
Bauer drops his struggling breakaway companions with 32km remaining, as he also takes the second intermediate sprint. He's strong, but the weather conditions ain't easy (as we now have crosswinds up to 40kmh) and the peloton obviously is in control of the break. It's now just a 20 seconds advantage for Bauer with still 32km to go. That does not look like he will stand a chance here.
And indeed. The general pace has been too high today. Bauer was caught by the bunch soon after. 73 riders are left in the main group, where De Souza sets the pace with no more attacks now that we enter the final 15km of the stage.
Several riders (including all breakaway riders) struggle to follow the pace, but the top favorites may wait until the finishing climb here. The route ain't easy, but also not challenging enough. Hard to get away with a late move now.
Portela as the next crash victim and he won't make it back to the pack eventually.
3km to go and indeed, there's been no more attempt to break clear from the pack, as the GC contenders shadowed each other until the crucial final sector. Most of the big names moved towards the very front of the bunch (62 riders) now, here's the order in which they appear:
Ulissi Van Garderen | Zaini Costa Froome | Hatanaka Reichenbach Le Gac | Fumeaux Abreu Schachmann McEvoy | Vilela | Zingle Boaro | Caruso | Scheit Mehr-Wenige | Ramos Ticona
Mohoric, Kreder and Levarlet not too far behind those names, but surely not in a good position. Same goes for Di Maggio, who's a few spots further down the line.
Also Teklit, Hategeka and Venter are somewhere in the range of those later names. Probably no Top-10 on the stage, but at least they seem fine after their falls.
It's not a real sprint yet, as they kept shadowing each other until the final 1.5km of the stage. We're on the final climb to the "Parliment of Lesotho" now: 1.6km in total, 4.8% slopes.
Ulissi still at the front, accelerating now. Van Garderen still behind him. McEvoy tried to be in the mix, but he's now losing ground. Reichenbach, Costa, Zingle, Zaini, Boaro as those names behind TvG now. Froome with a bad position now!
Ulissi ahead of Van Garderen, we're inside the final kilometre!
Costa, Zingle and Reichenbach looking like they could be the strongest behind the duo here..
Van Garderen is coming closer to Ulissi!
Zingle going strong with also Reichenbach looking promising now. Costa struggles to keep his pace and there's finally Froome (and his teammate Margaliot) moving forward and catching up to the Top-5 battle. Abreu, McEvoy, Boaro, Schachmann, Zaini maybe as the most promising names for a notable result on the opening day here.
..but who will win? It's TVG vs Ulissi.. it's a thrilling sprint, but the US boy has the better speed..
..and takes the stage: Van Garderen with the stage victory ahead of Ulissi! The defending race winner launched this sprint from a leading position (he already had with 3km to go), surely no ideal situation. He still delivered a good result, but Van Garderen timed his sprint to perfection. The race lead surely an important step early in this race.
The big group finishes with no time gaps and so Reichenbach completes the podium with the same time as TvG. A good opener for Reichenbach, who had a good position and well played sprint here.
Zingle and a strong finishing Zaini complete the Top-5 ahead of Froome, Margaliot, Kreder, Costa, Abreu. Also Kreder with a fast finish, but he lost this stage earlier in the sprint preparation. The crash did not hurt him, it seems.
49 riders eventually finished in this big group, with some further small groups losing a minute or more then. Two DNFs (as already said). And the second hilly stage tomorrow.
