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How the favourites fared in the Tour de France’s chaotic first week

Crashes and mechanicals have played lead roles in Stages 1 through 9

July 16, 2018
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Besides three different fellows winning two stages, wrecks, flats, broken wheels and delays have been the big stories of the first week of the Tour de France. Monday sees the battered, grimy peloton take a breather before three straight days in the Alps with two of the 105th edition’s three summit finishes. Greg Van Avermaet has been impressive in buffering his lead and giving BMC something to be thankful for, but he’ll surely lose the yellow over those three days.

It’s been a game of survival for the GC men, with the cruel hand of providence throwing the dice in a crap shoot. For a few it has been one step forward, one step back.

2) Geraint Thomas (Great Britain/Sky) 36:08
Forty-three seconds behind Van Avermaet, we can use Thomas as the starting point to examine the situation of the other GC men. Except for hitting the deck, he had a flawless first week.

4) Bob Jungels (Luxembourg/Quick Step) +0:07
He stayed out of trouble in the first week, did well in the team time trial and is the only GC man to gain a few seconds on the others on the cobbled stage.

5) Alejandro Valverde (Spain/Movistar) +0:48
He’s had a pretty tight game so far, with only a team trial time deficit as an obstacle.

6) Rafal Majka (Poland/Bora-Hansgrohe) +0:49
If the two-time King of the Mountains plays his cards right, he can add a Tour top-10 finish to his top-10s in the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España.

7) Jakob Fuglsang (Denmark/Astana) +0:50
Has done an amazing job to be this high in the GC after getting caught up in and behind several crashes.

8) Chris Froome, 9) Adam Yates and 10) Mikel Landa +0:59
Froome and Yates lost time on the first stage that they made up in the team time trial. Froome’s crash on the cobbled stage seemingly did no damage. Like Bardet, Landa is fortunate to have shipped a mere seven-seconds to his rivals on the cobbled day. Nor did he conceded time after getting caught behind crashes a few times. Along with Valverde and Quintana, he lost 50-seconds to Sky on the TTT.

Chris Froome didn’t fare too badly despite two crashes.


12) Vincenzo Nibali (Italy/Bahrain-Merida)+1:05
His team didn’t execute an effective team time trial. Otherwise fine.

13) Primoz Roglic (Slovenia/LottoNL-Jumbo) +1:14
Like Nibali and teammate Kruijswijk, most of his deficit comes from the team time trial. His squad worked very hard to get him back in contact with the yellow jersey after a crash caused a split midway through Stage 6.

14) Bauke Mollema (The Netherlands/Trek-Segafredo) +1:15
Like Landa and Fuglsang, Mollema has been caught out by crashes a few times.

15) Tom Dumoulin (The Netherlands/Sunweb) +1:20
Stage 6 was a bad one for the Giro d’Italia runner-up, as an untimely mechanical with 5.5-km to go cost him 53-seconds and a penalty for excessive drafting cost him 20 more.

16) Steven Kruijswijk (The Netherlands/LottoNL-Jumbo) +1:23

17) Romain Bardet (France/AG2R) +1:49
AG2R was +1:21 to team chrono winner BMC. The Great French Hope lost 31-seconds to his rivals after a bike change late in Stage 6 but only seven seconds on a snake-bitten Stage 9 plagued by five mechanicals.

19) Ilnur Zakarin (Russia/Katusha) +1:59
The Russian failed to inform his team he had crashed with 5-km to go on Stage 4 and finished a minute after the other GC riders.

21) Nairo Quintana (Colombia/Movistar) +2:07
Part of the rash of Stage 1 misfortune that also delayed Porte, Froome and Yates, the Colombian broke both wheels going over a traffic island and lost 1:15. Quintana was attentive and sharp on the cobbled day.

22) Rigoberto Uran (Colombia/EF-Drapac) +2:10
Stage 9 was hard on many GC riders, none so more than Richie Porte, but Uran’s crash caused him to lose 1:27 to the other heads of state.

After getting caught behind a couple of crashes in Week 1, Uran came a cropper on Stage 9. Photo: Sirotti

24) Dan Martin (Ireland/UAE-Emirates) +2:39
A crash with 17-km to go on Stage 8 winner saw the Irishman leak 1:14.

30) Tejay Van Garderen (USA/BMC) +5:22
Things were going along quite smashingly for BMC’s Plan B until a wretched Stage 9 in which he crashed and showed a general lack of sharpness.

Into the Alps we go.