Geraint Thomas today claimed his first ever Tour de France yellow jersey when he powered to victory on the opening stage of this year’s race in Dusseldorf. The Welshman set the fastest time in the 14-kilometre time-trial by five seconds.

Four Team Sky riders made the top-8 today including Chris Froome who was the fastest of the GC favourites. Richie Porte (BMC) finished 35 seconds behind Froome while Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Romain Bardet (AG2R-La Mondiale) and Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) finished 36, 39 and 42 seconds down on the defending champion respectively.

On a day of heavy rain, the course proved treacherous with several riders crashing including Nicolas Roche (BMC), Rick Zabel (Katusha-Alpecin), Dylan Groenewegen and George Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo). Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Ion Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida) also crashed and were forced to abandon the race.

Elie Gesbert (Fortuneo-Oscaro), Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrein-Merida) and Andrei Grivko (Astana) all held the lead for a time until German rider Nikias Arndt (Sunweb) set a time of 16.20.

This was bettered by Matteo Trentin (Quick-Step Floors) who finished in 16.14, but he was soon overtaken by former world champion Vassil Kiryienka (Sky) who knocked three seconds off Trentin’s time.

Geraint Thomas then bettered the time of his team-mate in 16.04 at the average speed of 52.282km/h to take the win and his first yellow jersey with Küng (BMC) taking the white jersey.

In addition to the yellow jersey, Thomas also pulled on the green points jersey, with Team Sky taking an early lead in the teams classification.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” said Thomas after the stage. “I hadn’t even thought about it to be honest I was super relaxed coming in. I felt like somebody was going to beat me.

“I’ve had my fair share of bad luck this year and back home the last month hasn’t been great – my wife and mum have both had a bit of a rough time.

“It’s amazing to get this win and thanks to everyone who has supported me. It’s a great day.”

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