TOUR IN REVIEW

The 112th Tour de France begins with a wet and wild welcome from northern France

- 

For the first time since 2021, the Tour de France had its Grand Départ on home soil, after excursions to Copenhagen, Bilbao and Florence. Lille was the chosen host, the prefecture of the Nord Département, and capital of the Hauts-de-France region, where the three opening stages took place.

There was little of the soaring temperatures and blazing sun of recent weeks, with the opening day affected by the wind and Sunday's stage two, in particular, blighted by heavy rain from the start. That's what you get for starting in northern France.

Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) sprinted to victory on stage one, taking the race's first yellow jersey as a result. However, his stay in the race lead lasted just 24 hours, as his teammate Mathieu van der Poel won stage two and took yellow.

A sprinter was scheduled to win the opening stage and therefore take the race lead for the first time since 2020, if one just looked at the stage profile.