Which GC riders lost time on stage 1 of the 2021 Tour de France

The Tour de France can be glorious and cruel and the opening stage of the 2021 edition was no exception, with two massive crashes dashing the hopes of at least five of the pre-race contenders.

Israel Start-Up Nation suffered the biggest losses, with Michael Woods limping across the line 8:49 behind stage winner and race leader Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quickstep). 

His teammate, four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome came away even worse. After being part of one crash with 45km to go, the Briton was more seriously affected by a high-speed crash that took out a huge swath of the peloton with 6km to go in Landerneau. Froome appeared as if he would climb into the ambulance but eventually remounted and, with help from teammates Omer Goldstein, Rick Zabel, and Reto Hollenstein, Froome finished 14:37 down and visibly shaking.

Movistar's Miguel Angel Lopez was among the fallers in the earlier crash which was sparked by a spectator with his back to the oncoming peloton holding a sign over the road. The Colombian chased back on but was caught up again in the second crash and finished 1:49 behind along with Cofidis' GC hopeful Guillaume Martin and Jumbo-Visma's back-up contender Steven Kruijswijk.

Lopez's teammates Alejandro Valverde and Marc Soler, named as co-leaders before the race, vanished from the GC picture after losing 5:33 and 24:38, respectively.

Defending champion Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and last year's runner-up Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) were in contention for the stage victory but couldn't quite catch Alaphilippe.

The pair finished in a small group with most of the other GC contenders, eight seconds behind the world champion.

Ineos Grenadiers' co-leader Richard Carapaz lost five seconds to the rest of the GC men in the uphill run-in, while Lucas Hamilton (BikeExchange) gave up 30 seconds.