Welcome to beautiful Prague for the Grand Depart of the 2018 Tour de France! Fans are lining the streets for the beginning of Le Tour’s first ever Bohemian Rhapsody, and it should be an entertaining opportunity for tens of thousands of fans to see 195 of the world's best riders fly past. Magnifico!
Of course, a day in the yellow jersey is at stake and expect the likes of World Champion Gesink, Fiedler and Taaramäe (who has worn yellow via a prologue before) to be amongst the top riders. Meanwhile the likes of the two GC contenders there, as well as Lecuisinier, Spilak and others will look to carve a small gap into the purer climbers. We should only see small gaps today, but gaps nevertheless.
Sosnitskiy is the first rider on the road in the 2018 Tour de France! A great climber in his own right who may show his face in the Alps and Pyrenees, but not likely to set a meaningful time here. Except, of course, that he will be the benchmark (10'58) for a minute, and maybe perch on the hotseat quickly.
And it was quick, because Spanish Champion Verona is up next and beats him out by a whopping 46 seconds! We could see some decent gaps here after all.
Slagter as the first potential GC guy is at +34, not a great time. Wohler comes close to Verona, 2 seconds off the pace.
Van Baarle comes in with an excellent time, 5 seconds ahead at the midway czech, and 10 seconds better than Verona at the finish. With a time of 10'02 we should see some sub-10 minute times today. Super impressive over an 8km+ course.
Zardini surprises with a provisional third place, +12!
With his team bringing a top sprinter, Wellens isn't their designated leader but he is a top 5 contender. Because he's now wearing the 68 dossard he's an early GC contender today, and sets a pretty average time of +23 to Van Baarle.
Vassdål beats Verona's time but is 8 seconds behind Van Baarle, in 2nd. O'Shea equals the Norwegian's time but is ahead by milliseconds.
Reis as part of Porto-Prio's strong climbing trio, and possible double threat with Intxausti, is hoping for a great TDF, and sets a nice building block here with a very close second place, just two seconds down!
Kangert dissapoints a little, 14 seconds off the pace.
Same with Hepburn, at +11. Nerz starts his GC campaign with a decent time, 21 seconds down. Kwok is 3rd, 6 seconds down. Nibali with a great time, 8 seconds behind. Scully with a decent time 8 seconds down.
Dennis as the first big favourite to start and he doesn't disappoint, taking the hotseat with a time of 9'59, our first time under 10 minutes!
However soon after is another big name, Chun Wing Leung, who is very very close to the time of Dennis - and in fact beats him by less than a second!
Frison also beats the time of Van Baarle by a second to become provisional third!
German Champion and stage favourite Fiedler coming in now, and he sets a very good time at the first check, taking the lead there. And... he is the new leader in a time of 9'57! A very solid ride from the German, favourite before the stage. With Taaramae waiting in the wings, some people are saying T-Mobile could be the first team to have every yellow jersey of Le Tour!
Dillier looking to beat that time, but fades at the end and can only manage fourth, 4 seconds off the time of Fiedler.
Boaro beats the Swiss out by a second.
Boom takes a slightly surprising two second lead at the first check, and the talismanic Dutchman is on fire... and he takes the new lead! What a surprise, a storming time of 9'55 and unless Fiedler was having an off-day, this could be our maillot jaune! The greatest ten minute performance of his career if he does pull it off - though you may want to confirm with Mrs Boom.
Haig as the next designated GC leader through with each team down to one rider to go - their leader! He sets a modest time of +23 - perhaps he may have joped for more.
Stoltz as the big Evonik hopeful today and their best TTist, but only sets a time of +9, just inside the top 10.
Dekker maybe hoping for more, at just 25th spot here, +17 on his teammate Boom, but not a bad time at all.
Same for Intxausti, who's 20 seconds behind.
Barguil will enjoy a home tour for most stages here - the Czech fans roar him on as Moser's hopeful, whilst the French fans will be cheering for him alongside Sicard, Lecuisinier and maybe ex-Bouygues man Taaramäe. He isn't the best time triallist but is no slouch. However today he dissapoints, 53 seconds down and already losing 30-50 seconds to rivals, especially Reis.
The aforementioned other French hope, Lecusinier, on the other hand, enjoys a great prologue, just 10 seconds down as one of the top GC men today.
Sicard not enjoying his best day here, 30 seconds down!
Gesink in the rainbow jersey should be a top favourite for the stage and look to get a solid GC ride in, he can't quite compete with the top TT guys today but is the best GC contender, 6 seconds behind!
Taaramäe should be in the same boat and puts in a solid ride but loses time to Gesink (4 seconds) and Reis (1) today.
However he will gain time on Spilak as expected, not a brilliant ride from the Slovenian who is 23 seconds behind, losing 17 seconds to Gesink and 13 to Taaramae on day one. Perhaps a little tired from the Colombo Classic a few days ago - a risk to attend.
With these last riders now in, we can congratulate
Lars Boom on becoming the first yellow jersey on the 2018 Tour de France! A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one for many cycling fans as a great and well respected rider gets his paws on the maillot jaune! Surprisingly for such a rider it's his first stage win in this race and his first time in the yellow jersey - another addition to the storied career of the former World Champion in the Road Race. This sends shivers down my spine.
With his all-around skillset it could be an entertaining defence in this first week, however with Gesink in particular mighty close already, he could lose it in the hills. Meanwhile Boom also is leading the points classification obviously, but that jersey will defer to Fiedler tomorrow.
A consolation prize for Leung, who missed out on the stage win but will wear the white jersey tomorrow. Already in the standings there we can see Lecuisinier lurking ominously as the big favourite to take this one into Paris.
See you all tomorrow for what could be a very interesting trek to Karlovy Vary and back, 267km and more undulating than you would think - obviously the route of the old classic.
