
Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) and Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) were expected to contest the high-speed, winner-takes-all-sprint on stage 1 of the Tour de France but were left disappointed and apologetic after they missed the decisive split and Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) took the win and the first yellow jersey.
Milan won a sprint at the finish ahead of Arnaud De Lie (Lotto) and Bryan Coquard (Cofidis), some 39 seconds after Philipsen, but it was for 39th place from the chasing peloton.