The Grand Départ of the 110th Tour de France took place in Bilbao. Around 50 kilometres from the finish line, the nervous peloton caught a five-person break that had formed at the start. The Team Jumbo-Visma riders grabbed control of this peloton, riding in service of leader Vingegaard and the favorite for the stage win, Van Aert.

With the steep Côte de Pike ahead, things moved quickly in the peloton. Tadej Pogacar accelerated on the climb, and Vingegaard swiftly followed. Not much later, Van Aert joined him with teammates Sepp Kuss and Wilco Kelderman. Meanwhile, Adam and Simon Yates attacked. The brothers crossed the finish together despite Sepp Kuss and Wilco Kelderman's tireless efforts to catch them.

"Chapeau for how the team rode today”, a somewhat disappointed Van Aert said. "We couldn't do much more. It's a shame I couldn't sprint for the stage win and the yellow jersey.”

"Congratulations to the Yates brothers”, Van Aert continued. "They stayed in front when Sepp and Wilco were chasing them. Tactically it's good for us that UAE Team Emirates took the yellow jersey, but I would have liked to take it myself today. The form is good. I finished among the best climbers, so that's nice.”

Vingegaard was satisfied. "I thank my teammates for their hard work today”, the defending champion said. "They were super strong. Of course, we were hoping for a stage win here, but it's also important that we all got through the first stage without any problems. Pogacar took four bonification seconds, but the Tour will probably not be decided by those four seconds.”

"It was a typical stage for the Tour de France’s first week”, sportive director Merijn Zeeman said. "The peloton was really tense, so it was important to protect the leaders. The men did that very well today. It was also very clever how Wout stayed with the best climbers. Unfortunately, he could not compete for the stage victory, but for the GC, it's not at all a bad result.”