Who's ready for day one of the Tour?!
La Course 2021 is under way in Brittany!
Our man on the ground Jonny Long is at the roadside for La Course
Into the final 20km of La Course and we have about 12 riders up the road with a 46-second advantage over the peloton.
La Course finishing with a small bunch sprint with Dutch rider Demi Vollering (SD Worx) adding the race to here Liège-Bastogne-Liège earlier in the season. Cecile Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope) taking second ahead of Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma) in third.
It is almost time for the Grand Départ in Brest in the 2021 Tour de France, I'm Tim Bonville-Ginn taking over from Alex Ballinger for the start of the stage. Alex will be rejoining in a couple of hours.
Here is a closer look at the stage today, what do you think to our predictions? The opening stages look to be designed for the world champion, Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck - Quick-Step), but he comes up against Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) and other talented puncheurs.
Alpecin-Fenix revealed a special jersey dedicated to Mathieu van der Poel's late grandfather, Raymond Poulidor. But it was originally only to be worn during the team presentation but social media pressure meant that the UCI granted special permission to wear it on stage one only.
The 108th Tour de France is underway! The peloton has set off in the neutral zone led by Julian Alaphilippe alongside Warren Barguil (Arkéa-Samsic) and David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ).
We're getting our first sightings of the special Tour de France jerseys as well as all the new national champions jersey too.
The flag has dropped and the Tour de France 2021 is racing! Immediately Victor Campenaerts and Max Walscheid (both Qhubeka-NextHash) kick off the attacks but no break just yet with 197km to go.
First crash of the race already as the race came through a very tight corner as the riders will have to tackle a lot of road furniture, everyone seems okay as it was well padded.
As expected, the pace is very high. Campenaerts has kicked yet again in that Burburry designed jersey for Qhubeka-NextHash. He's solo at the moment but he is being chased down by a Connor Swift (Arkéa-Samsic) led peloton with 188km to go.
Campenaerts takes the first king of the mountains points of the 2021 Tour de France with Georg Zimmermann (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux) just missing out on the solitary point to the Hour Record holder.
Who are your favourites for today? Get on our Twitter and vote!
Cristián Rodríguez (TotalEnergies), Frank Bonamour (B&B Hotels) and Danny van Poppel (Intermarché) up front with 180km to go with Ide Schelling (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Anthony Perez (Cofidis) joining them.
The peloton has sat up! It looks like we have our break with 176km to go. Gap now at 2-26.
Côte de Rosnoën is the next climb. The second category four climb so only one point available. This means they'll go level with Campenaerts as Tim Declercq or 'El Tractor' hits the front for Deceuninck - Quick-Step to control the gap to the break.
The gap has been stopped at 3-40 to the break as Declercq is joined by Petr Vakoč (Alpecin-Fenix) and Vegard Stake Laengen (UAE Team Emirates) on the front. Ineos Grenadiers just sat behind en masse.
Swift's DS giving him tips about the next climb where he will try and get the two points that are available. Also warning him about Van Poppel as being the quickest rider and to use the 10% gradient with 1km to go to the top. 160km to go with 3-33 gap.
Mathieu van der Poel just changed his shoes oddly, took his time over is as well but he will get back in easily enough.
So as expected in the middle of the first stage, the pace has plummeted and there isn't much happening so I may as well just talk about Brittany.
First category three climb of the race comes and it is attacked early by Rodríguez but Perez is the man that drops everyone on the tough cobbles as I believe he now goes into the lead of the mountain standings with two points. One point to Schelling. 135km to go with 2-02 gap.
Can we still call Pogačar a padawan?
Van Poppel was dropped on that last climb and he is taking his time to get back in to the lead group with 129km to go. Gap still sitting around 2-30 to the peloton.
Julien Bernard (Trek-Segafredo) has gone down and looks a bit shook up. Clipping a wheel and hitting the deck on his own. Just getting his handlebars sorted and he's off again.
ICYMI - Our very own Jonny Long is out in France and is at the finish, he said: "Just drove through the finishing circuit to the line, when you get into the town it becomes quite technical, especially with the way the barriers have been set up, so positioning will be key for those wanting a chance at stage victory,"
Love some good cobbles!
I'll now hand back over to Mr Alex Ballinger as I take a bit of a break. Alex will guide you through the next couple of hours and I'll return to run you through the finish.
Thanks to Alex. We shall be linking the race report into this live feed after the finish. I'm Tim Bonville-Ginn ready to take you through the last 20km as almost everyone have made it back to the peloton apart from Jasha Sütterlin (DSM) who is the first abandon of the race.
All the favourites for today and the overall are now very close to the front of the peloton now as Cosnesfroy (Ag2r-Citroën) makes it back into the peloton for what seems like the umpteenth time as he changed his bike for a third time.
One rider who seems to be missing is last year's Giro d'Italia champion, Tao Geoghegan Hart of Ineos Grenadiers. He Was caught out in the crash and was not helped back to the front.
Jumbo-Visma suddenly storm to the front with Van Aert and Roglič both placed well. They were on the front with only Ineos able to challenge the pace but now Deceuninck swamp Jumbo-Visma again as we're 5km to the next climb with 8km to go.
Another gigantic crash! Almost all the peloton down including Chris Froome who looks in a very bad way. Mohoric, Haller, Greipel, Barguil, Ion Izagirre and a huge amount of others on the ground. 5km to go with Deceuninck hammering the pace on the front.
UAE appear with Pogačar with Roglič, Van Aert, Van der Poel, Thomas, Colbrelli, Urán, Matthews and Sagan all in the front group. We now hit the final climb up to the finish with Deceuninck leading the way for Alaphilippe.
Van der Poel out of position but makes his way to the front now. Alaphilippe second wheel with Van Aert, Colbrelli, Van der Poel, Stuyvan, Roglič, Matthews with Pogačar a bit further down. Thomas and Carapaz also moving up with 2km to go.
Julian Alaphilippe attacks! The first major move from the big names in the Tour! Primož Roglič kicks with Tadej Pogačar following. TotalEnergies rider Pierre Latour also involved with the attacks.
Van Aert is now having to work for Roglič as all but Alaphilippe and Latour are brought back with one more kilometre to go.
Julian Alaphilippe wins stage one of the Tour de France 2021 in the world champions jersey! The French superstar has pulled off his dream of winning in the rainbow jersey and he takes the yellow jersey once again.
Michale Matthews sprints to second with Primož Roglič taking potentially vital bonus seconds in third.
Chris Froome is on his bike and riding in with Mads Pedersen but Froome looks to be in a bad way. Hopefully he can start again tomorrow.
Tour de France 2021 stage one, Brest to Landerneau (197.8km)
Have a read of our full race report!
Who are the winners and losers in the early battles for the yellow, green, white and polka-dot jerseys at the 2021 race around France... Check out our Standings page for all the up-to-date standings after the opening day of racing
That's that from us today. Thank you very much for following our coverage of stage one at the 2021 Tour de France.
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