Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) won the first stage of the Tour de France, a 156-km ride around Nice on Saturday.
After a large group crashed inside the final 3km, Kristoff outsprinted world champion Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) and Team Sunweb’s Cees Bol.
Rain made the roads treacherous and led to several crashes, with Pavel Sivakov of Team Ineos twice coming off. Pre-stage favourites Sam Bennett, Caleb Ewan and Giacomo Nizzolo also crashed on slippery roads as rain wreaked havoc during the stage.
“I always dreamt about wearing the yellow jersey and now it’s a dream come true,” the Norwegian said. “You can’t dream of a better start. We have a team of climbers and didn’t think of winning the sprints, at least not so early on but I felt really strong in the final kilometres and going to the line, I saw I’m going to win. It was an amazing feeling. I’m really proud of what I was able to do.”
The multiple incidents had prompted the Jumbo-Visma team to ask the peloton to take it slow in a descent, but Astana refused to take the foot off the gas pedal.
Their decision backfired, however, as their team leader Miguel Angel Lopez aquaplaned head first into a road sign. The Colombian got back on his bike.
In another descent, Primoz Roglic’s team mate George Bennett also crashed, meaning riders from the top two teams – Jumbo Visma and Ineos Grenadiers – were nursing bruises after the first day.
Pinot, who is considered as one of the title contenders behind favourites Roglic and Bernal, sustained bruises on his leg and shoulder.
Tour de France 2020 – stage 1 results (Nice-Nice):
| 1 | Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) | 3:46:23 |
| 2 | Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) | ,, |
| 3 | Cees Bol (Team Sunweb) | ,, |
| 4 | Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | ,, |
| 5 | Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) | ,, |
| 6 | Elia Viviani (Cofidis) | ,, |
| 7 | Giacomo Nizzolo (NTT) | ,, |
| 8 | Bryan Coquard (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept) | ,, |
| 9 | Anthony Turgis (Total Direct Energie) | ,, |
| 10 | Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo) | ,, |
| 11 | Oliver Naesen (AG2R La Mondiale) | ,, |
| 12 | Matteo Trentin (CCC) | ,, |
| 13 | Clement Venturini (AG2R La Mondiale) | ,, |
| 14 | Luka Mezgec (Mitchelton-Scott) | ,, |
| 15 | Hugo Houle (Astana) | ,, |
| 16 | Sergio Higuita (EF Pro Cycling) | ,, |
| 17 | Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) | ,, |
| 18 | Connor Swift (Arkea-Samsic) | ,, |
| 19 | Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) | ,, |
| 20 | Christophe Laporte (Cofidis) | ,, |
 won the first stage of the Tour de France, a 156-km ride around Nice on Saturday.){kind=link}