After a long solo breakaway on Thursday, Irish rider Ben Healy won a hilly sixth stage of the Tour de France and Mathieu van der Poel took the yellow jersey from defending champion Tadej Pogačar by one second.

The first stage of the Tour de France is completed! The 184 riders started in Lille, where the first leader's jersey was awarded. In three weeks, we will know who will take home the yellow jersey, as well as the green,

Evenepoel, the reigning time trial Olympic and world champion, was expected to win the stage in the absence of time trial specialists — Filippo Ganna and Stefan Bissegger, who both crashed and exited the race on the first day of the Tour last week.

A three-week Grand Tour will always contain natural ebbs and flows, and, for much of Monday’s stage between Valenciennes and Dunkirk, it looked as if the peloton had declared an unofficial rest day, with the riders happy to cruise back towards the coast after a weekend of wind, rain and intensity.

The biggest race of the year has started: the Tour de France. On Saturday, July 5, the peloton started from Lille, with the race set to conclude three weeks later with the (not so) traditional finish in the French capital,

Tadej Pogacar outsprinted rival Jonas Vingegaard to win stage seven of the Tour de France in Mur-de-Bretagne and reclaim the yellow jersey from Mathieu van der Poel.