TEAM VISMA LEASE A BIKE. 10 with honors. What a joy to see Vingegaard in yellow, what a joy to see them already there going at each other hammer and tongs. What a joy this team time trial that exalts in one fell swoop the squad and the individual, directeur sportif and tacticians. What a joy this start to the Tour, worthy of the Tour. The Fisher King wears the first yellow jersey, but we know he's here for the one in Paris. It's only the first pedal stroke, it's only the first bell toll of a champion who doesn't lose his cool. What a joy. I almost forgot: Piganzoli is 7th overall: absolutely beautiful.
NETCOMPANY INEOS. 10. Handicapped from the start, since they have to give up an important GC rider like Onley due to a shoulder injury suffered in a crash during the 6th stage of the Tour d'Auvergne, the team led by Geraint Thomas surpasses itself and would deserve even more. Tarling and Ganna are a guarantee, but the others struggle not a little to keep their pace. On more than one occasion they fall apart. No Bernal: in the final he raises his arm and signals to the team car that it's not his day. A false start for him. Nothing doing for Kévin Vauquelin, who is slowed down by a puncture. Great the performance of Filippo Ganna and Tobias Foss. Absolutely brilliant Pippo, who does the final stretch at full throttle and arrives alone: 21'55", average speed 53.600 km/h. It looks done, but this time there's Vingegaard to wipe the smile off his face and take the yellow jersey. He's second overall by just 8" from the yellow jersey: give it another try Pippo!
UAE TEAM EMIRATES – XRG. 7. It's not a super performance, but we're talking about excellence, about riders who get there. It's clear that the Martian Pogacar comes back down to earth today (in any case the polka dot jersey ended up with him for posting the best climbing time). A third place that's a wake-up call, not so much for him, but for his rival: the Dane is wound up tight as a drum and what's worse he's pulling out all the stops.
LIDL TREK. 8. Final time trial pairing with Vacek and Ayuso. Excellent their performance, their effort. They're there in the zone, even if those 16" separating Vingegaard from Ayuso aren't insignificant.
RED BULL HANSGROHE. 6.5. They have turbo in their engine, but there's also someone who weighs the engine down. Remco is a fury, if it were up to him he'd do it alone, but he can't: not until the final.
DECATHLON CMA CGM. 7.5. Outstanding performance from the entire team. They're not the men to beat, but they put up a fight.
ALPECIN PREMIER TECH. 6.5. Well done them, absolutely brilliant him. Well done the team, absolutely brilliant as always Mathieu Van der Poel. A performance of absolute quality. The Dutchman devours the final climb with a pace that earns him the best split time, but his is in any case a great time.
GROUPAMA FDJ UNITED. 7. Final flourish from Romain Gregoire, who exploits to perfection the excellent performance of the entire team, despite Guillaume Martin Guyonnet's crash. They cover the distance in 21'22" at an average of 52.300 km/h. In the end, that's fine.
BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS. 6.5. Antonio Tiberi's team does its thing, without overdoing it. The Italian starts his Tour with the thirteenth time: come on!
JAYCO ALULA. 7. It's true they're here to fight for GC with Plapp, but they're thinking short-term, about a yellow jersey that could be within their reach. The last man they send is Michael Matthews: good his performance. When he finishes he's not the best, but just behind Groupama.
EF EDUCATION EASY POST. 6.5. They're a team of troublemakers, all flair and imagination. Today there's only pedaling to do and they do it without praise and without blame.
PINARELLO Q36.5 PRO-CYCLING. 6. They decide to work for Tom Pidcock, as was logical, but then the Brit fails to deliver a finale worthy of him.
SOUDAL QUICK-STEP. 6. The Belgian team also does what it can. They can't expect the moon, but they don't end up on Mars either.
UNO X MOBILITY. 5.5. Johannessen's team would have the human material to do better, but ends up staying in the pack.
TOTALENERGIES. 5. Jordan Jegat's team doesn't have the characteristics to set the world on fire, but today it arrives a bit broken.
CAJA RURAL-SEGUROS RGS. 6. They're the ones who effectively open the 113th Tour de France: they start first and avoid the wooden spoon.
TUDOR PRO CYCLING. 5. They have a time trialist who needs no introduction, but with the clock they're not comfortable.
NSN CYCLING TEAM. 5.5. For them the watchword is to limit the damage: they limit it.
COFIDIS. 5.5. Slow start, but for the French team there's a whole Tour ahead to build something good.
MOVISTAR. 4. Black day for Cian Uijtdebroeks. The Belgian loses it at the worst moment and blows up (a matter of cramps, he'll say). They leave him to his fate. They've been waiting for this for a long time: they're waiting for it today too.
LOTTO INTERMARCHÈ. 5.5. Objective: save your skin. For what they have, they do their thing.
PICNIC POSTNL. 5. Problems right from the start for Warren Barguil, but there are problems for the whole team.
XDS ASTANA TEAM. 5. It's not their performance, you couldn't expect more, but at least avoid last place, even though it must be said that Velasco, Tejada and Vinokourov were involved in a crash that inevitably affected the stage.