It doesn’t get much more bizarre than this, the opening stage of this year’s Tour de France punctuated by the strangest of crashes when Cofidis rider Benjamin Thomas and Mattéo Vercher ended up on the deck, the pair lunging for a KOM point when it happened. 

Stage one had been typically frantic and stressful for the bunch, Italian time trial star Filippo Ganna having already abandoned the race following a heavy crash earlier in the day. 

However, at Mont Cassel, the second KOM climb of the day, things got turned up a notch, the two French riders ending up on the deck after a bizarre incident as they battled it out for a single polka dot point.

Thomas had already taken the first of the three fourth-category climbs on the route, meaning he’ll be in the climber’s jersey tomorrow unless the commissaires take issue with the incident about to be described.

The climb finished on cobbles, both riders bouncing around as they tried to keep control of their machines while forcing the power through the pedals. As the line neared, Thomas came around Vercher and finished quicker, lunging to the line with a bike throw to take the point. 

In the process however his Look bike bounced out from underneath him and he hit the deck, taking down Vercher too. The pair seemed suitably frustrated, embarrassed and annoyed as they picked up their respective rides and continued the stage, the peloton soon swallowing them back up on a frantic opening stage.

Things didn’t calm down after that, crashes and crosswinds making it an uncomfortable day for all on the opening day of the world’s biggest bike race.

By the time the race returned to Lille for the sprint finish, fewer than 40 riders were in the front group, Visma-Lease a Bike having split things up in a crosswind section at around 20km to go.

Remco Evenepoel, Florian Lipowitz and Primož Roglič were the big losers, Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard at times pushing the pace themselves to extend the gap to their flailing rivals behind.

Jasper Philipsen comfortably won the sprint after some excellent work from Kaden Groves, Mathieu van der Poel, Jonas Rickaert and Xandro Meurisse, the Belgian easily beating Biniam Girmay in the reduced bunch kick.

 Pogačar, Vingegaard, Matteo Jorgenson, Tobias Halland Johannessen and Enric Mas were the only GC riders in the front group and took 39 seconds on Evenepoel, Roglič, Lipowitz, Mattias Skjelmose, Carlos Rodríguez, Felix Gall and Santiago Buitrago.

For others it was worse. Aleksandr Vlasov lost 1:06, Eddie Dunbar lost five minutes and poor 52kg Lenny Martinez lost nine.