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Double the fun: Yates twins battle it out for the Tour de France’s first yellow jersey

Michael Woods fifth place on tough opening stage

July 1, 2023
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Adam Yates is the first yellow jersey of the 2023 Tour de France after beating his twin Simon to win Stage 1. The 110th Tour de France launched in the Basque Region of Spain on Saturday with a hilly 182-km route that started and finished in Bilbao. It was the second consecutive foreign Grand Départ. Several riders’ GC hopes were dashed by the parcours, and three-time Vuelta a Espana runner-up Enric Mas crashed out of the race. Michael Woods was fifth place.

Woods (centre) finishes ahead of Hindley, Skjelmose, Gaudu and Vingegaard. Photo: Sirotti

The Course
Day One wasn’t messing around. Thirteen of the 2023 Tour’s 21 stages held less than Saturday’s 3221 vertical meters. There were three Cat. 3 climbs, a Cat. 4 and a Cat. 2 on tap. The last categorized ascent was the Côte de Pike, 2 km of 9.4 percent, cresting 10 km from the finish line. The final kilometre was 5.4 percent.

With those early climbs, the attacks and breakaway bids were sure to fly after the green light. A quintet of riders approached the first climb of the 110th edition, Cat. 3 Côte de Laukiz, where Jonas Gregaard of Uno-X took maximum KOM points. On the Côte de San Juan de Gaztelugatxe, Pascal Eenkhoorn, recent mountains classification winner at the Tour de Suisse, stymied Gregaard and was the polka dot man on the road.

There was a big gap between Climb 2 and 3. Wout Van Aert emphasized his lack of interest in the green jersey by taking zero points at the intermediate sprint at Gernika-Lumo. Out of the peloton chaps Mads Pedersen grabbed the most points.

The final three climbs came in quick succession. The break was caught before Climb 3, Cat. 4 Col de Morga. At full gallop the field took on 3.8 km of 4.9 percent, and the Basque fans ate it up.

Cat. 2 Côte de Vivero was the highest category climb of the day. The peloton carried on with its wild pace as it negotiated 4.3 km of 7 percent. Pogačar’s teammate Mikkel Bjerg led the way before Jumbo-Visma put their hands on the wheel. Sprinters were left scattered all over the road. Pello Bilbao and Alexey Luksenko were the first final GC top-10 contenders whose drop off the back said, ‘Not this year.’ Neilson Powless of EF Education-Easypost burst out to take over the KOM lead on the road.

Richard Carapaz and Enric Mas crashed on the descent. Mas was the first rider to abandon the race and Carapaz’s GC challenge was over.

Surely someone would attack on Côte de Pike. The Dutch Bees continued to give ‘er. Adam Yates led Pogačar over the top with Jonas Vingegaard and Victor Lefay.

Lefay looks back at Vingegaard and Pogacar before the peak.

After Thibaut Pinot, David Gaudu, Jai Hindley, Michael Woods, Mikel Landa, Mattias Skjelmose, Carlos Rodriguez and several Jumbo-Visma riders joined the move on the descent, Adam attacked with his twin Simon.

The Yateses entered the final 2 km with a 16-second gap. Simon led onto the final climb to the line. The crowds went bonkers. Adam made the strong move that unhitched his brother and pulled on the yellow jersey.

Pogačar was third, grabbing the last of the bonus seconds.

Sunday is another hilly affair, with the famous Jaizkibel cresting 15 km from the finish line.

2023 Tour de France, Stage 1
1) Adam Yates (Great Britain/UAE-Emirates) 4:22:49
2) Simon Yates (Great Britain/Jayco-AlUla) +0:04
3) Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia/UAE-Emirates) +0:12
5) Michael Woods (Canada/Israel-Premier Tech) s.t.
90) Hugo Houle (Canada/Israel-Premier Tech) +9:42
111) Guillaume Boivin (Canada/Israel-Premier Tech) +13:43