Rain, narrow roads and first-day jitters stretched the peloton frequently after several crashes during Stage 1 of the 2020 Tour de France, the result being our first Point d’Appuit of the race: Krists Neilands of Israel Start-Up Nation.

2019 was an impressive year for Neilands, who won the Latvian National Road Championships, the general classification for Tour de Hongrie and the Grand Prix de Wallonie. He looked quite strong during the first three stages of Paris-Nice during March. He rides in support of team leader Dan Martin.

The winner of the overall 2019 Point d’Appui, Élie Gesbert of Arkéa–Samsic, is notable to defend his title in the Tour de France this year. He suffered a fractured kneecap at Challenge Mallorca in February. Good wishes for his continued return to racing.

Stage 1 started in Nice and followed loops that took riders over the Aspremont three times before ending in a wild sprint finish in Nice as well. Alexander Kristoff won the stage over the 176-rider field with a strong push during the bunch sprint along the long straight-away.

A crash just after the 3-kilometer flag winnowed the field, but the 3K rule allowed the fallen to collect the same time as the leading riders. John Degenkolb of Lotto Soudal finished outside the time limit, so only 175 riders were scored.

Michael Schär of CCC Team, part of the three-person break, scored enough points on the two trips over the Class 3 Ĉote de Rimiez to win the polka dot jersey on the stage. The peloton caught the break with about 35 miles left on the day.

Rafael Valls Ferri of Bahrain McLaren is the Lanterne Rouge.