Philipsen wins TdF opening stage; Pogačar safe

LILLE, France -- Jasper Philipsen won the opening signifier of the Tour de France successful a sprint to the line, portion defending champion Tadej Pogačar finished safely connected Saturday.

Pogačar is looking to triumph the showcase contention for a 4th clip connected the backmost of large signifier this season.

Stage 1 took riders connected a 185-kilometer (115-mile) way starting and ending successful the bluish metropolis of Lille.

Philipsen's Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate Mathieu van der Poel enactment him successful a large presumption to propulsion wide successful the past 100 meters and triumph by a wide borderline for his 10th Tour signifier win.

Eritrean cyclist Biniam Girmay was 2nd and Norwegian Søren Wærenskjold third.

Pogačar and two-time Tour champion Jonas Vingegaard of Denmark were successful the beforehand radical -- finishing 18th and 20th, respectively -- but did not contention the sprint. All finished successful 3 hours, 53 minutes.

Double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel narrowly avoided aft astir 50 kilometers a clang which unseated Italian rider Filippo Ganna. He continued but aboriginal abandoned, arsenic did Swiss rider Stefan Bissegger, caught successful a abstracted crash.

There was different clang aboriginal erstwhile Frenchmen Benjamin Thomas and Mattéo Vercher contested bonus points for the champion climber's jersey. Thomas overtook Vercher astatine the enactment connected the abbreviated cobblestoned ascent but mislaid power of his beforehand instrumentality and swerved into him. They some fell but got up and continued.

Sunday's 2nd signifier is simply a somewhat hilly 209-kilometer trek from Lauwin-Planque to Boulogne-sur-Mer successful bluish France and should again favour sprinters.

This month's contention stays successful France for the duration, with nary stages overseas arsenic successful erstwhile years. It ends connected July 27 successful Paris.