Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard took the yellow jersey on the opening stage of the Tour de France following a tense team time trial.

Two-time Tour winner Vingegaard finished the 19.6km course in 21 minutes, 47 seconds – eight seconds ahead of Italy’s Filippo Ganna of the British Netcompany Ineos Cycling team.

Favourite for the overall win Tadej Pogacar finished third, 12 seconds down on Vingegaard for his UAE Team Emirates-XRG team.

Pogacar, 27, is looking to try to become the equal most successful rider in the Tour’s history, alongside Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain.

On a hot evening in Barcelona for the Tour’s Catalonia-based Grand Depart, the race’s first team time trial for seven years saw teams ride in a ‘chain’ formation to establish the quickest time through the city by protecting their lead rider from the wind resistance – with each squad’s seven support riders eventually peeling off to let their team leader cross the line alone.

Vingegaard, 29, a time trial specialist, has returned to top form since a serious crash in 2024 in the build-up to the Tour caused injuries to his lungs.

As part of his recovery to be able to compete with Pogacar’s explosive style of riding, Vingegaard has won cycling’s other two three-week Grand Tours, including last year’s protest-hit Vuelta a Espana and May’s Giro d’Italia, in which he won by more than five minutes overall.

“‘It’s the perfect start,” said Vingegaard, of the Visma-Lease a Bike team. “I didn’t have to do much. To take yellow for me personally after the past few years… it’s nice for me to experience it again. It’s something special.”

While Pogacar will not be too concerned to lose out to the only rider who is considered able to stop him winning a fifth Tour, the Slovenian will know he is racing against his main rival in the modern era on his best form since 2023.

The rider largely considered the third best in the world, Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel finished fifth for his Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team, 19 seconds down.

France’s big hope for overall victory, 19-year-old Paul Seixas of the Decathlon-CMA CGM team finished tenth, 39 seconds off the pace.

The last French rider to win the men’s Tour de France was Hinault in 1985.