Foldable Bikes Party: Tour de France 2018: Rest Day 1 Recap

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The 2018 Tour de France kicked off in Noirmoutier-En-L'Ïle a week later in July than usual thanks to the FIFA World Cup crowding the sports broadcasts slots, and if there was a sense of urgency to get the race underway because of the wait, it was even more heightened as the peloton sought to put the polemics surrounding Chris Froome's salbutamol case behind them.

After the ASO threatened to ban Froome from racing the Tour, the UCI made an unexpected decision to drop his case from the 2017 Vuelta a España on the recommendation from WADA less than a week before the Grand Depart. The French public found the verdict difficult to accept, and Sky and Froome were greeted with boos and whistles during the team presentation and early stages.

It is far easier to ignore the cynical fans when travelling at 60kph, and the bunch cranked out 201km on the opening stage at a blazing 45kph, with Fernando Gaviria and his Quick-Step Floors squad lighting the afterburners to rocket to victory. Gaviria became the second Colombian to wear the maillot jaune after Victor Hugo Pena in 2003.

It was a week for the sprinters, with Gaviria, Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe), and Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNl-Jumbo) picking up pairs of stages each, except for the BMC-led team time trial, Dan Martin's (UAE Team Emirates) stellar victory on the Mûr de Bretagne, and John Degenkolb's emotional win in Roubaix.

After first Gaviria and then Sagan, Greg Van Avermaet took the maillot jaune in the team time trial and held it through the first rest day.

As is par for the course for the first week of the Tour, there were numerous crashes. Lawson Craddock (EF Education First-Drapac) spent half of the first stage chasing after the peloton with a bloody eye and fractured scapula, painfully making it to the finish inside the time cut and fighting to remain in the race over the next days.

Foldable Bikes Party

Monday 16 July 2018

Tour de France 2018: Rest Day 1 Recap

Stage 1: Noirmoutier-En-L'Ïle - Fontenay-Le-Comte, 201km

Stage 2: Mouilleron-Saint Germain - La Roche-Sur-Yon, 182.5km

Stage 3: Cholet (TTT), 35.5km

Stage 4: La Baule - Sarzeau, 195km

Stage 5: Lorient - Quimper, 204.5km

Stage 6: Brest - Mûr de Bretagne Guerlédan, 181km

Stage 7: Fougères - Chartres, 231km

Stage 8: Dreux - Amiens Métropole, 181km

Stage 9: Arras Citadelle - Roubaix, 156.5km

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