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An undulating 182-kilometre opening stage of the French Grand Tour promised to provide some drama following last year's Grand Depart in the form of a processional time-trial, with both Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) and Enric Mas (Movistar) forced to abandon the race after a crash.
Multiple riders commented on the difficulty of the stage in contrast to last year's Tour opener, with Aussie GC contender Ben O'Connor (AG2R Citroën Team) walking away disappointed despite finishing safely in a bunch 33 seconds behind stage winner Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates).
"I felt pretty average today, I think it was the heat," O'Connor told SBS Sport's Gracie Elvin after the stage.
"Maybe I didn't drink enough, (it was) super humid. To be honest, I wasn't looking (at the rest of the bunch), I was just trying to concentrate.
"I've had day one blues two times in the Tour de France, so I'm just happy I got through to our first road stage without a crash."
Meanwhile, fellow Western Australian and GC hopeful Jai Hindley claimed that he enjoyed the stage, as well as praising fans from the Basque Country in pushing him through to the finish line in the same group as rivals Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) and Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) among others.
“Welcome to the Tour, eh? It was epic. It was like a one-day race; super stressful quite early in," Hindley told SBS Sport.
“It was just like… (I had to) stay as far forward as I could (and) be ready to go when it kicked off.
“It was pretty epic. Crowds were bonkers, the atmosphere was unreal, racing was super-hard.
“The team did a great job and I’m pretty happy with how it went in the end.”
Nick Schultz (Israel-Premier Tech) admitted to almost causing a crash on the race's opening day, but claimed he was thankful that he and his other competitors came away "unscathed" from the mishap.
“I don’t think there were any issues with us (the team). Personally, I nearly caused a massive crash actually at one point there on the run in," he said.
"Little bit of a rookie mistake; I was looking behind and nearly hit the wheel in front of me.
"Thankfully, I stayed upright. Apologies to anyone who had a bit of brown stain in their pants at that time.
"But, yeah, just carnage, and we’re all unscathed."
Sam Welsford, one of four Aussie riders from Dutch outfit Team DSM, also highlighted the difficulty of the stage while praising the sea of vocal spectators in Bilbao.
"It was a super tough (stage), but the crowds were amazing out there," he said.
"I've never been in anything like that before; the Basque fans were crazy and you couldn't even hear yourself think it was that loud."
Fellow Aussie Chris Harper (Team Jayco AlUla) shared similar thoughts on the opening stage of the French Tour.
"(It was) pretty unreal," he said after the stage.
"Especially, in the Basque country, with the amount of fans that were on the road at times, especially on that last climb.
"It's just a wall of noise, but it's pretty nice. I think it gives you a little bit extra; you can't hear yourself breathing so heavy. So, yeah, it was an awesome first day."
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Stage 1 - Full Replay - Tour de France 2023
Where every Aussie placed after Stage 1
7. Jai Hindley (Bora–Hansgrohe) + 0:12
28. Matthew Dinham (Team DSM) + 0:33
32. Jack Haig (Bahrain-Victorious) + 0:33
33. Ben O'Connor (AG2R Citroën Team) + 0:33
34. Chris Harper (Team Jayco AlUla) + 0:33
67. Chris Hamilton (Team DSM) + 5:36
68. Nick Schultz (Israel-Premier Tech) + 5:36
98. Simon Clarke (Israel-Premier Tech) + 11:03
108. Luke Durbridge (Team Jayco AlUla) + 13:53
150. Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Dstny) + 15:14
155. Alex Edmondson (Team DSM) + 16:51
157. Sam Welsford (Team DSM) + 16:51
