Vingegaard takes early Tour de France lead as Visma win opening stage in Barcelona

Jonas Vingegaard took the first leader’s yellow jersey of the 113th edition of the Tour de France as his Visma-Lease a Bike outfit won Saturday’s opening team time-trial in Barcelona.

Vingegaard will wear the yellow jersey on Sunday for the first time since he last won the Grand Boucle in 2023.

He finished the 19.6km course eight seconds quicker than Filippo Ganna for Netcompany Ineos, with reigning champion Tadej Pogacar earning third place for UAE Team Emirates at 12sec.

The first of 21 stages took riders along the Mediterranean coast, past the city’s famous Sagrada Familia basilica and finished with a short climb up a hill overlooking the popular tourist destination.

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Throughout the stage, Visma had been almost neck-and-neck with Netcompany and the Lidl-Trek team of Spaniard Juan Ayuso.

But Visma went quicker over the second half and Vingegaard made the difference on the final 800-metre uphill drag to the finish.

Pogacar remains the overall favourite thanks to his Tour victories in 2020, 2021, 2024 and 2025, as well as his strong form this year. 

The Slovenian sensation is aiming to join the select crowd of Belgian Eddy Merckx, Spaniard Miguel Indurain and Frenchmen Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault as the only riders to have won cycling‘s most prestigious race on five occasions.

Vingegaard is once again his biggest challenger. The Dane took home the yellow jersey in 2022 and 2023 and is aiming to complete the men’s Giro-Tour double. 

The three-week race will cross into the French Pyrenees on Stage 3. Stages 19 and 20 culminate at the famed Alpe d’Huez climb in the Alps, which comes just 24 hours before the 21st and final stage ending on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and AP)