Anything you can do…

Mathieu van der Poel snatches yellow from Julian Alaphilippe on dramatic opening weekend

- Peter Cossins

Panache, drama, pain, tears and even a pantomime villain, the opening weekend of the Tour de France had it all. There were huge crowds too, as the peloton’s great entertainers fully lived up to the pre-race hype.

Julian Alaphilippe’s latest demonstration of derring-do on the opening day enabled him to swap the rainbow jersey of world champion for the maillot jaune, but just 24 hours later, Mathieu van der Poel emulated his French rival with a powerful show of force and ripped it from his shoulders on the Mûr de Bretagne.

Inevitably, the Dutchman’s victory on only his second day in the race was an emotionally charged one, coming less than two years after the death of his grandfather, Raymond Poulidor, who finished on the Tour podium a record eight times but never wore the yellow jersey. As he crossed the line, van der Poel pointed to the sky in tribute to his papy, and spent the next half an hour either in or on the verge of tears during a series of press interviews.

An opening weekend that will go down as one of the most memorable in the Tour’s history began with what L’Équipe described on its front page as a “crazy” stage, the French sports paper going on to describe Alaphilippe’s victory in Landerneau as “devilish”.