It was a fast and nervous start to this year’s Tour de France with the peloton allowing the break to have their head until 5km to the finish. The bunch sprint was scrappy – and full tilt! – and for the first time, Mark Cavendish won a head-to-head against Marcel Kittel who was second. Peter Sagan freelanced to third. Cavendish takes his first ever yellow jersey. All GC contenders came in safely.

Rider of the Race

Looks like changing teams have changed the fortunes of two of the best sprinters in the race. We’ve seen Marcel Kittel crush everyone all season long with renewed vigour after joining Etixx-QuickStep team and the money was on him to take today’s stage. But Mark Cavendish’s move to Team Dimension Data seems to have given him a new lease of life as well and he battled it out to take a fine win for him, for his team and for the Qhubeka charity.

Someone just got herself a lion plushie and bouquet of flowers!

Hair you go!

Alberto Contador hit the deck hard – or should I say traffic divider. Not sure what happened but a few guys went down at the same time so perhaps there was something slick on the road (deer guts are apparently very slippery, according to one of Panache’s homespun colloquialisms, but I doubt it was that). Here’s the impact:

Bruised and bloodied, Baby Blackbird kept his cool. Swapped a bike with a teammate and worked to get back to the peloton.

So cool and collected that he started pedalling in his socks while he changed his shoe. The shoe needed to go but the insole was precious. So precious this happened …

The peloton slowed down (and why wouldn’t they? Major contender goes down 75km from the finish of the first stage, the race wasn’t on, no echelons … no reason not to wait), Contador gets back to the peloton and then gets some assistance from the Tour doctor. Speculation was wild as to who exactly the doctor was!

If you didn’t burst out laughing at this string, it’s going to be a long Tour for you, my friend!

Stage results

1 Mark Cavendish (Team Dimension Data) 4:14:05

2 Marcel Kittel (Etixx-QuickStep) s/t

3 Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) s/t

4 Andre Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) s/t

5 Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo) s/t

GC top 5

1 Mark Cavendish (Team Dimension Data) 4:14:05

2 Marcel Kittel (Etixx-QuickStep) s/t

3 Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) s/t

4 Andre Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) s/t

5 Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo) s/t

All the jerseys

Leader’s jersey: Mark Cavendish (Team Dimension Data)

Points jersey: Mark Cavendish (Team Dimension Data)

KOM jersey: Paul Voss (Bora)

Best Young Rider: Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo)

Full race review: CyclingNews