The China Mail - Vingegaard takes Tour de France lead with 'perfect start'

Vingegaard will wear the yellow jersey on Sunday for the first time since he last won the Grand Boucle in 2023.

"It's the perfect start, still a long Tour obviously, but it's the perfect start," said the 29-year-old Dane, who has won all three of his previous races this season.

"My teammates did an amazing job today, they were so strong, I didn't have to do much to be honest, they just drove me all the way to the finish to take the stage win for us and to take the yellow jersey.

"For me, personally, after a few years without it, a few hard years, it's nice for me to experience it again."

He finished the 19.6km course eight seconds quicker than Filippo Ganna for Netcompany Ineos, with reigning champion Tadej Pogacar earning third place for UAE Team Emirates at 12sec.

"It's the biggest race of the world, it's an amazing victory for us, especially when it's a team time-trial where we're eight guys," added Vingegaard, who won the Giro d'Italia in May and the Vuelta a Espana last September.

"I have seven teammates who sacrificed for me today."

Vingegaard has already won three stage races, and this was his 13th World Tour level victory of the season -- already a personal record.

- Pogacar rocket -

Throughout the stage, Visma had been almost neck-and-neck with Netcompany and the Lidl-Trek team of Spaniard Juan Ayuso.

But Visma went quicker over the second half and Vingegaard made the difference on the final 800-metre uphill drag to the finish.

Pogacar ended like a rocket for UAE, who had been fourth at all three time-checks, to snatch third place from Ayuso, who was 16 seconds off Vingegaard's time.

Ayuso leads the young rider standings and will wear the white jersey on Sunday.

World and Olympic time-trial champion Remco Evenepoel also finished strongly to take fifth for Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe at 19 seconds.

There was also an impressive debut at the Tour for teenage French prodigy Paul Seixas who took sixth place for his Decathlon CMA CGM team, which had been as low as 15th at the first time-check and still down in ninth at the third.

Visma, Lidl-Trek and Netcompany were within a second of each other at the first time check and within two at the second.

Visma started to edge ahead at the third with a six-second gap to the other two.

Netcompany suffered a blow between the second and third checks when their designated finisher, Kevin Vauquelin, suffered a rear puncture, meaning a quick change of plan and the much larger former time-trial world champion Ganna going full throttle all the way to the line.

Lidl-Trek also lost Mattias Skjelmose to a puncture midway through their race, depriving Auyso of a key helper over the two short, sharp climbs at the end.

UAE and Red Bull were a little off the pace at the three time-checks but Pogacar and Evenepoel proved their class with rapid finishes.

Pogacar was fastest up the final climb and took the lead in the mountain's classification.

He will start Sunday's second stage in the polka-dot jersey.

His Mexican team-mate Isaac Del Toro finished strongly and is sixth overall, with Vingegaard's Italian team-mate Davide Piganzoli seventh and Red Bull's joint leader Florian Lipowitz eighth.

Seixas will start Sunday's 169km second stage from Tarragona to Barcelona 10th overall at 39sec.

E.Choi--ThChM