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Vingegaard takes Tour de France lead as Visma win opening stage / Photo: © AFP
Vingegaard takes Tour de France lead as Visma win opening stage
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.
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 ended like a rocket for UAE, who had been fourth at all three time-checks, to snatch third place from Ayuso, who was 16 seconds off Vingegaard's time.
World and Olympic time-trial champion Remco Evenepoel also finished strongly to take fifth for Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe at 19 seconds.
There was also an impressive debut at the Tour for teenage French prodigy Paul Seixas who took sixth place for his Decathlon CMA CGM team, which had been as low as 15th at the first time-check and still down in ninth at the third.
H.King--SFF
