During the first stage in the Pyrenees, it was the British Simone Yates who made the difference in the sprint. The runner of the Mitchelton formation took the lead in the Bagnères-de-Bigorre finish on Thursday (18 July) in front of his two breakaway companions, the Spaniard Pello Bilbao and the Austrian Gregor Mühlberger.

The 26-year-old Briton won the Tour for the first time in his career. But he has already won the Vuelta and Giro, he dominated for a long time last year before collapsing in the last three days. A few months later, he won the Vuelta.

Yates, closely followed by Mühlberger (Bora), had led the second pass of the day, Hourquette d'Ancizan (1st category), 30 km from the finish. Bilbao (Astana) had joined them in the descent. In the sprint he took the lead just before the last corner to produce his effort in the short straight final (200m).

The first pursuers arrived with a delay approaching 1 min 30 sec. The peloton crossed the line more than nine and a half minutes from the winner.

On the eve of the only individual time trial in Pau, a truce was observed between the favorites who let the breakaway go to the end. The victory of Simon Yates had no consequences for the yellow jersey of Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck).

With AFP