Mathieu VAN DER POEL. 10 with honors. He was the man to beat, but that'll be next time. Stage win and jersey, which stays in the family, stays at home, remains in the Alpecin Deceuninck rooms. Second Tour stage win, fifth of the season with Sanremo, E3 Saxo, Roubaix: from the Brittany wall to the Boulogne Sur-Mer wall. Two stages, two stage wins, with two days in the yellow jersey. Could Alpecin have done better? What a stage, with "that panache", as our French cousins would say. Look at the finish order, it's mind-blowing: Pogacar and Vingegaard in the photo. As they say: the Tour starts easy, you'll only see the big names in the third week. Sure, right.

Tadej POGACAR. 10. Accepts the challenge, doesn't hide, tries to win the stage, which would be his 100th victory. Loses by a hair to someone who knows how to beat him, but he always fights, with generous determination. Collects some points for the polka dot jersey now on his shoulders.

Jonas VINGEGAARD. 10. Pedals light and easy like never before. His posture is that of a feline ready to attack. Collected, contained and ready to pounce on you. He doesn't spare pedal strokes, doesn't let go of Tadej for a second: this Dane is not the one from the Dauphiné.

Romain GREGOIRE. 9. The 22-year-old Frenchman is eager like few others, not afraid to insert himself among such knowledge, doesn't hesitate to elbow with the world champion: lets him pass, but doesn't lose his wheel.

Julian ALAPHILIPPE. 8. At 33, he still wants to fight like in the good old days and today the weather is beautiful. He doesn't feel the weight of years, he only feels that against those three there's not much to do, but LouLou is there.

Matteo TRENTIN. 8. Does an obscure and precious job: he started like a rocket, putting head, legs, and heart at the service of the team.

Oscar ONLEY. 8. The 22-year-old British rider from Picnic PostNL remains with the nobility of pedaling and for a rider of his talent, that's already something.

Aurélien PARET-PEINTRE. 7. The 29-year-old Frenchman fights, tries to stay attached to excellence and he also excels.

Kevin VAUQUELIN. 7. Must show himself to the world, his team will close shop, he shows he deserves to stay in this cycling.

Simone VELASCO. 7. The XDS Astana rider confirms his regularity: he's always there now, he's gotten used to it, he's found his measure. That's his territory, his comfort zone: the Bolognese can sit at the table with the big names.

Remco EVENEPOEL. 5. Not good. He's there, behind the top three, then on the final ramp he miserably falls back.

Primoz ROGLIC. 5. Once he used to seek, smell, and feel these finishes, now he doesn't even see them.

Jonathan MILAN. 6. Wins the intermediate sprint and tells Biniam Girmay to go to hell, guilty of hindering him several times. Burst and bursts: of anger. Then on the côte de l'Haut Pichot the Friulian falls with Geraint Thomas: a complex, complicated, and painful start to the Tour.

Benjamin THOMAS. 8. Victim of yesterday's crash on the Mont Cassel GPM, today he struggles a lot. Grits his teeth, resists courageously: calvary.

Lenny MARTINEZ. 5. The Bahrain Victorious rider still in difficulty: something clearly isn't right, this can't be the real Martinez.

Yevgeniy FEDOROV. 6.5. The XDS Astana rider breaks away just 3 km in. With him Bruno Armirail (Decathlon Ag2r) Brent Van Moer (Lotto) Andreas Leknessund (Uno X). The 25-year-old Kazakh will later fall with the Norwegian from Uno X. No damage, but plenty of hits.