Tour de France 2019 result: Mike Teunissen pips Peter Sagan to stage one as Geraint Thomas caught in crash

After his teammate Dylan Groenewegen crashed hard in the final 1.5km, Mike Teunissen took the chance to go for victory himself and pulled off a victory to remember

What looked on paper like being a routine jaunt around Belgium turned into a frantic opening stage of this Tour de France as two late crashes caused chaos among the peloton, including for the reigning champion Geraint Thomas, and Dutch rider Mike Teunissen pipped the great Peter Sagan on the line in a photo finish to win an unlikely victory.

Teunissen had spent the past few weeks with his Jumbo-Visma teammates working to set up their sprint king Dylan Groenewegen for victory on the streets of Brussels, but Groenewegen was one of the victims of a high-speed crash with 1.5km to go which saw him hit the ground hard.

Fellow Dutch rider Teunissen heard the news over team radio and decided to up the challenge himself, accelerating past more renowned sprinters like the Australian Caleb Ewan and Italian Elia Viviani to confront Sagan in a head-to-head in the final few metres, and replays proved that Teunissen had thrown his front wheel over the line first by only a few inches.

The result was the best of the 26-year-old’s career, marking his first ever stage win in a Grand Tour, and it ensured he will have the honour of wearing the yellow jersey in Sunday’s team time-trial around the Belgian capital.

Most of the main general classification riders escaped a fraught day unharmed, although Team Ineos's Thomas was held up and briefly parted from his bike. "I’m fine," he said afterwards. "I gave myself enough space and avoided the actual crash. The main thing is that it didn’t do any damage – the bike took the hit and I just toppled over."

Astana’s in-form Jakob Fuglsang was not so lucky, getting caught up in a separate crash in the final 10km which left blood streaming down his face and his jersey ripped in several places.

“I cannot believe it,” Teunissen said at the finish. “We were working months to bring Dylan here to the yellow jersey and then with 1.5km to go everything disappears because he goes down in a crash.

Jakob Fuglsang carries the wounds of a crash (Getty)

“I thought ‘I am still here and I feel fresh, we can try it’. I saw everyone dying in the last metres. Sagan, I was catching up on and I just took him on the line. It is unimaginable.”

Lotto-Soudal’s Ewan finished with Team Dimension Data’s Italian sprinter Giacomo Nizzolo – picked ahead of Mark Cavendish – fourth.

Sunday’s team time-trial is a 27.6km from the Palais Royal in the Belgian capital to the Atomium building across the city.