Gallery: A look back on the first week of the 2018 Tour de France
While the racing kept to the flat-lands, some GC leaders saw their hopes at victory evaporate while many limited the damage after mechanicals and crashes
The 2018 Tour de France got underway in the Vendée department of western France. Photo: Sirotti
Fernando Gaviria added a Tour stage win to his young palmarès. Photo: Sirotti
Gaviria also earned the races first yellow jersey. Photo: Sirotti
Peter Sagan imposed himself on Stage 2. Photo: Sirotti
The three-time world champion took his first career yellow jersey in the process. Photo: Sirotti
BMC proved the strongest in the team time trial. Photo: Sirotti
Greg Van Avermaert secured yellow for the second time in his career. Photo: Sirotti
Back to sprinting on Stage 4 won by Gaviria. Photo: Sirotti
Photo: Sirotti
Toms Skujiņš leads the KOM competition. Photo: Sirotti
Dan Martin won his first Tour stage in five years. Photo: Sirotti
Pierre Latour was left frustrated with his second place. Photo: Sirotti
After misfiring in the first sprint stages, Dylan Groenewegen won on the longest stage of the race. Photo: Sirotti
Then hit out again the next day to make it back-to-back victories. Photo: Sirotti
The week ended with the much anticipated cobbled stage to Roubaix. Photo: Sirotti
GC riders did their best to avoid race ending mishaps while one-day specialists vied for the stage win. Photo: Sirotti
Sagan and Van Avermaet were pre-race favourites. Photo: Sirotti
It was redemption for John Degenkolb who took his first WorldTour victory since a horrible training crash in 2015. Photo: Sirotti
It was an emotional and popular win to end out the Tour's first week. Photo: Sirotti
The first week of the Tour de France was more about staying in contention for the victory than hitting out to take time on rivals for the general classification contenders. BMC won the team time trial but lost their GC man Richie Porte in a crash early on in Stage 9. Peter Sagan started his bid to win a sixth green jersey with two stage wins and six top-three finishes. Fernando Gaviria and Dylan Groenewegen showed a new generation of sprinters have developed into real contenders while John Degenkolb took a very emotional victory on the much anticipated cobbled stage. A lot of GC lost time because of mishaps, crashes and mechanicals but with the mountains looming the race is still very open.
