Tour de France Tour de France 2025, Stage 1: Lille – Lille (184.9k)

[Samu Cuenca]

AG2R Dehatlon.

 

[Tim Cahill]

Nurse I think someone's having a seizure up there

 

[Potomac]

this team presentation is even worse than imagined.

For the dance interludes, couldn't they have hired high school cheer leaders? Just to raise the skill and performance level of dancers.

 

[Rackham]

Nurse I think someone's having a seizure up there

I think one of them is being attacked by a bee. Looks like it anyway.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Total Energies have some multicoloured chessboard patterning around the bottom of the jersey, apparently in tribute to Peugeot (that would be a nice replacement sponsor)

 

[Kazistuta]

Came here just for the comments on the dancers. Wasn't disappointed (about the comments, the dancers is another case).

 

[Potomac]

When the MC speaks English, I think he sounds like he should be presenting WWF.
Or maybe monster trucks

 

[Tim Cahill]

A dance performance so electric that it crashed the boards.

 

[armchairclimber]

Remco looks skinny

 

[Kazistuta]

When the MC speaks English, I think he sounds like he should be presenting WWF.
Or maybe monster trucks

Agree.. real American Style presenter.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

So FdJ launched a new kit about 3 days ago, with a slight change to incorporate FdJ United, then rock up today with a totally different kit, with one red arm and dropping the two-tone blue hoops.

 

[snipeheem]

And there he is. The Greatest.

 

[Tim Cahill]

We need an interview with Joao to ask him what his ambitions are

 

[Tim Cahill]

This interviewer is far too kind and optimistic, tepid viewing experience, cycling needs a Jeremy Paxman figure to drag these guys over the hot coals.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

And there he is. The Greatest.

You must be mistaken. Laporte isn't there.

 

[Rackham]

Things we learned: Alaphilippe can speak French quite well, both Rog and Evenepoel look very skinny (once again though the caveat being these team presentations are some of the only times we see these guys among actual human beings and not POW's from a Japanese WW2 camp, so their weight differential is rarely seen relative to normies) and most importantly Genesis was a visionary band regarding what future dance routines in TdF presentations had in store for the world.

View: https://youtu.be/hGI2d31M7Ns?t=64

 

[RedheadDane]

Things we learned: Alaphilippe can speak French quite well

Huh? I think I figured that out quite a while ago... like... when he first started making himself notable.

You're joking, right?

 

[Rackham]

Huh? I think I figured that out quite a while ago... like... when he first started making himself notable.

You're joking, right?

As the French would say, bien sûr. It was in jest and a reference to a convo on the previous page.

Anyone who had to endure whatever the hell that presentation was (including those so called dance routines) took solace in musing over philosophical questions like "can a Frenchman actually speak French?".

Deep stuff.

 

[Pantani_lives]

Things we learned: Alaphilippe can speak French quite well.

Perhaps. But can he say "Comment allez-vous?" as fluently as Tadej?

 

[Berniece]

To make the race even more exciting, there's enough wind to create echelons. Same goes for Sunday. I wouldn't be surprised if any of Vingegaard, Evenepoel, Pogacar or Roglic would already lose time. With Visma's team they could really break up the race, and if they are lucky put some time in Pogacar. Since UAE brought mostly climbers.

 

[Berflamand]

To make the race even more exciting, there's enough wind to create echelons. Same goes for Sunday. I wouldn't be surprised if any of Vingegaard, Evenepoel, Pogacar or Roglic would already lose time. With Visma's team they could really break up the race, and if they are lucky put some time in Pogacar. Since UAE brought mostly climbers.

I wouldn't bet on Pogacar losing time in potential echelons (barring mechanicals/crashes). His own ability to seemingly always be in the right spot at the right time + Wellens in great form should be enough to keep him in front.

It's a different story for Evenepoel and Roglic but they do have a pretty good team for these conditions so that might save them in those scenarios.

I think Almeida might be the most at risk of losing time in hectic and windy conditions as he's not exactly known to shine in those conditions and the team will obviously focus on Pogacar. Well, together with riders like Gall of course.

But sadly @Devil's Elbow said there are not that many open roads on stage 1 so I don't know if we should get our hopes up for potential echelon action.

 

[Valv.Piti]

A lot of the GC riders are not known for positioning and echelons. Remco and Roglic to a lesser extent, but you mention riders like Gall and Almeida who are especially bad at stuff like that. Could also mention a rider like Mas. I think there will be some decently big gaps after the first 9 stages even without crashes, but if it gets rainy and we see some of these bigger crashes that we haven't seen lately in the opening week, it will be pretty brutal..

 

[Devil's Elbow]

But sadly @Devil's Elbow said there are not that many open roads on stage 1 so I don't know if we should get our hopes up for potential echelon action.

I mean, echelons are still possible, but a combination of wind speed and direction that is just enough in the desert, or Zeeland, or De Moeren is absolutely not going to cut it here. The thing is that I'm seeing wildly differing wind forecasts, so difficult to say what we're going to get this weekend.

 

[Berniece]

I mean, echelons are still possible, but a combination of wind speed and direction that is just enough in the desert, or Zeeland, or De Moeren is absolutely not going to cut it here. The thing is that I'm seeing wildly differing wind forecasts, so difficult to say what we're going to get this weekend.

What about the 2nd stage? There's even more chance of high wind, is the road more open there?

 

[Devil's Elbow]

What about the 2nd stage? There's even more chance of high wind, is the road more open there?

They're heading west most of the day, so it's going to be a block headwind until they turn north at the intermediate sprint. After that, there are two not overly long, but exposed plateau sections right before and after the first cat. 3, although the wind needs to turn southwest rather than west for the angle to really work. The problem is that strong wind from the west on Sunday also means a big headwind on both of the final KOMs.