2018 Tour De France - Let Battle Commence

The Tour wasted no time in starting the chaos from the first flag drop, and has caught several favourites out already. CW was there to witness it

Two days, two maillot jaunes, untold crashes and searing heat — that just about summarises the opening weekend of the 2018 Tour de France.

On paper, two relatively flat sprinter’s stages in the Vendée region of Western France didn’t exactly threaten to set the world on fire, but in the event the first weekend has provided all the excitement and drama a Tour fan could hope for.

The sharp end of the race began with Colombian Tour rookie Fernando Gaviria (Quick Step Floors) taking the yellow jersey on his first ever Tour de France stage, with world champion Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) second.

The Slovak turned the tables the following day, however, somehow avoiding the brace of pile-ups on La Roche-sur-Yon’s tight turns that scuppered many of his rivals, to win from a small group including André Griepel and Alexander Kristoff, and pull on the yellow jersey.

For 23-year-old Gaviria, he was the first Colombian to wear yellow since Victor Hugo Peña of US Postal in 2003. Speaking after the race, he struggled for words as he tried to take it all in, and while his response amounted to little more than ‘this is brilliant’, the effusive gestures and body language said it all.

In contrast, Peter Sagan’s laconic reaction and insistence that yellow couldn’t quite compare to the rainbow stripes was typical of the charismatic Slovak, even if simply because you never have any idea what he’s going to say.