Anthony Turgis won the first stage of this Tour de France for the TotalÉnergies team, the third for the French. On Sunday, the French rider won on the white roads in Troyes in a sprint with a small leading group that he distanced by a bike on the wire. Tadej Pogacar keeps the yellow jersey at the end of a completely crazy race marked by numerous attacks and several explanations between favorites.
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Anthony Turgis brought France its third victory in the Tour de France this year by winning the stage of the white paths on Sunday in Troyes. He beat his breakaway companions in a sprint to beat the Briton Tom Pidcock and the Canadian Derek Gee and sign the most beautiful victory of his career. It’s incredible, it’s been a long time since I won. I’ve been circling around a big victory for years. “, he exulted, very moved, dedicating his victory to his family and friends.
A specialist in the classics, the 30-year-old from the Paris region, who comes from a family of cyclists, had already taken second place in Milan-San Remo. He brings his TotalEnergies team its first victory in the Tour de France since Lilian Calmejane in 2017. This is already the third French victory in this Tour after those of Romain Bardet and Kévin Vauquelin in the first two stages. It concludes, before the rest day on Monday, a great first week with also the record of victories of Mark Cavendish and the first of Biniam Girmay, as well as already some great battles for the yellow jersey.
Favorites in the arm wrestling match
After the Troyes stage, a total concentration of cycling, the general classification remains unchanged, with Pogacar maintaining a 33-second lead over Remco Evenepoel, 1:15 over Jonas Vingegaard and 1:36 over Primoz Roglic. But the main favourites fought like rarely on the plain, with Pogacar attacking twice in the last 22 kilometres, but failing to take off. Evenepoel launched a very daring attack 70 km from the finish, followed only by Pogacar and Vingegaard.
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In a rare image on the Tour, the three men, isolated from the rest of the peloton, quickly returned to the breakaway before getting back up, cooled by the prospect of being cut off from their teammates on the dangerous wine-growing paths full of traps. The breakaway, made up of solid rollers, was then able to make up ground and in the end, it was Turgis who proved the strongest.