On the live blog: Full coverage from today's Tour de France opener, more on our exclusive about Lightweight wheels being used by Team Ineos, Cav's lovely gesture as he goes for a ride with young fan + more

Mike Teunissen won a dramatic, surprising and powerful sprint to take the yellow jersey, and his biggest career win to date. 

The Jumbo Visma rider was the lead out man for Dylan Groenewegen but when his leader crashed he made the decision to push on and go for the victory himself. 

He has previously finished 2nd at Dwars Door Vlaanderen and 7th at Paris-Roubaix but this victory will be something else for the 26-year-old Dutch rider. 

Michael Matthews (Sunweb) found himself on the front with around 250m to go and was forced to make his effort. 

Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) sprinted off his wheel with Sonny Cobrelli (Bahrain-Merida) and Teunissen in pursuit. 

In the end Teunissen had the strength to come around Sagan just as the Bora-Hansgrohe rider was beginning to fade.

Indeed Ned Boulting and David Millar were so shocked they intially thought it was Teunissens team mate Wout Van Aert who had won the stage. It was only once the photo finish had been confirmed that they realised it was the lesser known rider that had taken the opening stage of the 2019 Tour de France in a brilliant, opportunistic dash for the line. 

now that’s what you call a photo finish #TDF2019 pic.twitter.com/rTSj1yPTgb

— BlueWorld (@TheBluePlanet13) July 6, 2019

And it wasn't just stage contenders affected by the usual nervousness and twitchy legs of the opening day, the GC contenders also hit the ground. 

Jakob Fulgsang, riding for Astana, came down hard with 18km to go. At first he looked ok to continue with just superficial wounds. However, he hit his head hard at it appeared as though his glasses had smashed cutting his eyebrow. 

With the team time trial tomorrow a big day for the GC boys, it will be interesting to see how Fulgsang recovers. 

＜Cycle*2019 ツール・ド・フランス＞
落車...！
https://t.co/WAvdOMt0LL#TDF2019 #jspocycle pic.twitter.com/8n5f2OCpYB

— J SPORTSサイクルロードレース【公式】 (@jspocycle) July 6, 2019

Some stages of the Tour just aren't as good as others. That's a fact. So what can you do to keep yourself entertained during those long, days watching others in the saddle? Play Tour de France bingo of course! 

Here it is. Your #TDFBingo for this year's #TDF2019 Something to keep you entertained between the second intermediate sprint and the final feed zone. We'll be watching on @Eurosport_UK @itvcycling and listening every night to @cycling_podcast. Who will get the first line? pic.twitter.com/uK6bEnJiG7

— TDF Bingo (@TDFbingo) July 5, 2019

Special pinning this on today Here we go #tdf2019 pic.twitter.com/3D8kpZ78BG

— Geraint Thomas (@GeraintThomas86) July 6, 2019

Brad Wiggins is a stylish man, mostly, and his love for cycling's aesthetic history is well known.

Here, he talks us through some of Eddy Merckx yellow jerseys, giving a little bit of insight into what it takes to win the most coveted prize in cycling. 

2019 marks the 50th anniversary of Eddy Merckx’s first Grand Tour win.

Up until the end of his career, this dedicated and talented cyclist, nicknamed “le Cannibale”, brought home countless victories, riding in all weather conditions and on all terrains.

Merckx rode in the Tour de France seven times, achieving 5 wins and 34 stage wins. In 1969, he wore the Yellow Jersey for the very first time in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, right near his family’s grocery store. 

This year the race will ride past the cycling icon's house twice as they enjoy a summer start in the Flanders region.

Episode One | What this jersey means to me; Eddy Merckx @LeTour pic.twitter.com/rJlbv7oAIg

— Brad Wiggins (@SirWiggo) 6 July 2019

Interesting...

Think again! This Cannondale SuperSix Evo Disc is pretty darn light

View this post on Instagram

The new @cannondaleroad #SuperSixEvo. Light, fast, and ready to rip at the Tour de France. And... did we mention it’s under the weight limit with disc brakes?

A post shared by EF Education First Pro Cycling (@ef.educationfirst.procycling) on Jul 3, 2019 at 2:58pm PDT

Defending champion Geraint Thomas and Team Ineos supremo Sir Dave Brailsford have been sharing their final thoughts ahead of the Tour de France starting in Brussels today.

Here’s what they had to say at yesterday’s press conference.

Brailsford: "We’re still in the infancy of this exciting new partnership with Jim Ratcliffe and Ineos, and I can’t tell you how excited I am to be heading into this Tour with them.

"Here we are, starting this edition of the Tour de France as Team Ineos, it’s an amazing feeling really - and it would be remiss of me not to thank Jim and his team.

"We want to help pay them back over this race.

"We’ve got a great team this year - of course we lost Chris [Froome], which was a big disappointment.

"But we’ve got two great leaders and a team packed full of Tour experience, which is vitally important in this race.

"With the group of guys we’ve got here, you couldn’t want for a better team. It’s an extremely exciting time for us and we’re all really looking forward to the race getting underway now."

Thomas: "I feel in good shape. Of course the crash [at the Tour de Suisse] was a setback but I didn’t lose any training days and I’m feeling good on the eve of the race.

"There's no lasting damage at all. Obviously, it was disappointing to hit my head. That was the reason I couldn't carry on but I've still done some good training and I don't think it's affected me too much

"We’re excited heading into the race. It’s always a great occasion and we feel we’re ready for another strong three weeks.

"Myself and Egan [Bernal] are co-leaders and we’re excited about the challenge that lies ahead of us.

"Egan is an honest and good guy, and as long as we communicate well and are open with each other, like Froomey and I were last year, then it can work just as well. Obviously it will be a huge advantage to have two of us there in the final stages.

"I don't know about being favourite. That's for everyone else to talk about. I can't bet on the races anyway, so the odds don't really matter to me. I feel in a good place and I'm looking forward to the race, and I just want to get going now."