Tour de France stage 1 Live – Who will take the first yellow jersey in Lille?

The gap has steadied at 2:10. Alpecin and Lidl are keeping this controlled.

160KM TO GO

Bruno Armirail is a veteran of breakaways, and has been especially lively this year. His multiple escapes has helped see him take the King of the Mountains classification at both the Dauphiné and Tour of the Basque Country - so we can expect him to target the points on offer today, and seal the first polka-dot jersey of the race.

The odds are of course stacked against these five riders, but perhaps less so than it might have been given the calibre of riders that managed to get into it.

Benjamin Thomas especially knows how a breakaway like this can succeed - it was from a four-man group that he took the sole Grand Tour stage win of his career, during the first week of the 2024 Giro d’Italia.

Here's a first glimpse of the five riders up the road.

The gap's been allowed to grow some more, up to over two minutes.

170KM TO GO

Quinn Simmons is also contributing to the pace-setting in the peloton, visible in the stars and stripes jersey as American national champion. He’s working for Lidl-Trek teammate Jonathan Milan.

Alpecin have all seven of their domestiques in formation at the front of the peloton, including Mathieu van der Poel and Kaden Groves, all working for Philipsen. This feels like a statement of intent from the team, and a visible show of confidence that their sprinter can win the tenth stage of his Tour career, and take a first yellow jersey.

We have the first mechanical of the Tour de France - Cofidis' Bryan Coquard. This will be the Frenchman's eighth Tour, and he could be in the mi in the sprint today.

The gap up to 1:30, Alpecin and Lidl have taken over at the front of the peloton. Their respective sprinters Jasper Philipsen and Jonathan Milan are desperate to win today, and seize a potentially once-in-a-career opportunity to wear the yellow jersey.

So we have our break of the day, and it’s a strong one. Benjamin Thomas is a Grand Tour stage winner from the Giro last year, while Bruno Armirail has a notoriously powerful engine.

Now it does seem they have sat up - in fact it seems most of the bunch are already taking a comfort break.

The peloton hasn’t sat up, but they have allowed the gap to grow up to 45 seconds already.

Four of them are French: Armirail, Thomas, Le Berre, Vercher. The other is German: Jonas Rutsch.

Five riders have attacked right from the off.

The familiar sight of Christian Prudhomme’s head and torso popping out of the race car waving the flag gets this year’s Tour de France underway.

And we're off!

185KM TO GO

We're just moments away from the flag. Anticipation is reaching fever pitch!

Mathieu van der Poel is just off the back of the peloton, with 3.5km left of the neutralised zone. He wore the yellow jersey for most of the first week in 2021, but will today be tasked with delivering it to his Alpecin teammate Jasper Philipsen.

Here were the riders waiting at the unofficial start.

There’s still 7km left of the neutralised zone, where it seems every inch of the roadside has been claimed by spectators.

The defining rivalry of modern cycling is of course Tadej Pogačar versus Jonas Vingegaard, of which this year’s Tour de France will be the latest in the seemingly never ending installments. Have a read of Philippa York’s analysis ahead of the race.

It's Round Five in the epic Vingegaard-Pogačar duel - Philippa York analysis

They're on the move! The riders have begun the lengthy neutralised section in Lille, and are swarmed by huge crowds.

A key image from the stage 1 neutralised startline...

Just five minutes to go before the neutralised rollout begins

Look who's back...

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A reminder, too, that the Tour de France is not the only Grand Tour in town this weekend. The Giro d'Italia Women starts Sunday in Bergamo and Cyclingnews will be providing full coverage of the race. Here's our latest story on it, reviewing the key stages.

Giro d’Italia Women 2025 – The make-or-break stages in the race for the maglia rosa

And the first images of today's start are already appearing. Here's one of the Arkéa-B&BHotels team at the signon

Barring those cross-winds, today's opening stage is likely to end in a bunch sprint. Here's Cyclingnews' full preview by colleague James Moultrie of the opening stage of the 2025 Tour de France.

Tour de France 2025 stage 1 preview – Chaos expected in sprint for iconic first yellow jersey in Lille

The weather in Lille is currently dry warm and a bit overcast, but most importantly for the race, it's windy, and there are expectations that what's already a stiff breeze could get stronger as the day progresses. On an exposed course running through the flatlands of northern France, that could mean crosswinds.

The neutralised start for stage 1 is at 1310 CET, then there's a lengthy section before racing itself begins for real at 1340.

Hello and welcome to Cyclingnews live coverage of stage 1 of the 2025 Tour de France. Yes, it's finally here!