Tour de France 2019 result: Mike Teunissen wins stage one in photo finish over Peter Sagan
The Dutch rider clinched the first stage and will wear yellow on Sunday
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Your support makes all the difference.Dutch rider Mike Teunissen pipped Peter Sagan on the line to win stage one of the 2019 Tour de France in Brussels.
Local favourite Greg van Avermaet made an early impression, racing up the first categorised climb to ensure he will wear the famous polka dot jersey in Sunday's team time-trial.
Teunissen's Jumbo-Visma teammate Dylan Groenewegen crashed just before the final kilometre and looked in some discomfort.
Alexander Kristoff and Peter Sagan could also feature in what will be a fiercely contested stage win and yellow jersey.
For the big GC riders like Geraint Thomas and Egan Bernal (both Team Ineos), Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain–Merida) and Jakob Fugslang (Astana), the priority will simply be to get through the day unscathed.
Here's everything you need to know about stage 1:
When does it start? The race starts at around 11.25am BST (12.25pm local time).
Odds: The favourite for the stage is Groenewegen (6/4) ahead of Viviani (3/1) and Ewan (4/1).
What is the route? A flat an opening stage which begins and ends in the Belgian capital via a loop south to Charleroi and west via Mur de Grammont.
Eurosport show an interview with the supremely cool and confident Dylan Groenewegen before the Grand Depart, and he named Elia Viviani and Caleb Ewan as his most threatening rivals. Peter Sagan might have something to say about that, but it certainly seems like those three are going to be the ones to beat in Brussels. How Mark Cavendish would love to be in the heat of this battle right now.
17km to go: A crash! A few riders have gone in the middle of the peloton and one of them is Astana's Jakob Fugslang, the in-form rider coming into this Tour de France. He's up pretty quickly and with the help of a teammate he is being dragged back towards the bunch, but there are a couple of sizable rips on his jersey around the right shoulder which look painful, albeit not Tour threatening.
15km to go: There's blood streaking down the face of Jakob Fuglsang and it certainly looks nasty. Let's hope it isn't. He's continuing to ride hard and four Astana teammates have dropped back to help him close the minute or so he's lost to the peloton.
↵Here's a closer look at that incident which has held up the Dane, Fuglsang...
12km to go: We haven't checked in on the man out in front on his own for a while, and now we do we find he's lost most of his advantage. Stephane Rossetto is still leading this Tour de France, by 35 seconds, but he has a 175-strong swarm zooming towards him.
7km to go: Rossetto has been swallowed up by the bunch but wins the combativity award for his efforts, while a bruised and battered Fuglsang finally catches back up to the rest. We have all 176 riders together heading into the finish.
5km to go: As the road sweeps round a tight corner, Team Ineos are near the front and they will want to stay near there until the final 3km cut-off to ensure Bernal and Thomas get awarded the same time as everyone else around them.
3km to go: Here we go then, a sprint finish in Brussels. Peter Sagan is in position, so is Dylan Groenewegen, Caleb Ewan, Elia Viviani...
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