Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floor's) wins opening stage 1 of 2018 tour d France.

Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floor's) sprints to opening one victory in Fontenay-le-Comte after a drama-filled finale to what seemed like it would be a standard sprint stage. The Colombian's first Tour victory came at the expense of Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) in second and Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin) in third.

Chris Froome crashes and with other big contenders and loss some valuable times.

How it unfolded 

The opening stage of the 2018 Tour was a long one at 201km, and a largely flat jaunt starting out from Noirmoutier-en-l'Île, an island off the coast of western France situated in the Vendée department. The island was last visited for the 2005 prologue, won by David Zabriskie.

After heading over the Pont de Noirmoutier bridge to the mainland, the route hugged the coast for much of the day before heading inland for the finale. The day's only intermediate sprint came at 119.5km in the town of La Tranche-Sur-Mer, while the first climb of the race was the Côte de Vix a 700-metre hill averaging 4.2 per cent which came 173km into the stage.

Peter Sagan took second on the stage ahead of Marcel Kittel, but the surprising early gaps in GC are the story of the day.

Meanwhile, Chris Froome crosses the line in a group with Richie Porte (BMC), 50 seconds behind Gaviria.

 Top Ten General classification standings.

1, Fernando Gaviria (Colombia) Quick-Step Floors 04:23:22,
2, Peter Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe 00:00:04,
3, Marcel Kittel (Germany) Katusha-Alpecin 00:00:06,
4, Oliver Naesen (Belgium) AG2R La Mondiale 00:00:09,
5, Alexander Kristoff (Norway) UAE Team Emirates 00:00:10,
6, Christophe Laporte (France) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
7, Dylan Groenewegen (Netherlands) LottoNL-Jumbo,
8, Michael Matthews (Australia) Team Sunweb,
9, John Degenkolb (Germany) Trek-Segafredo,
10, Jakob Fuglsang (Denmark) Astana Pro Team