Luke Rowe (Ineos Grenadiers) praised the bulk of the peloton after the first stage of the Tour de France was interrupted by a mass crash during an atrocious rainstorm.

A number of crashes occurred, and Lowe's teammates Pavel Sivakov and Andrei Amador were also involved. Sivakov actually fell twice before Tony Martin led the peloton into neutral before the second descent of the main mountain of the first stage. However, Astana did not listen to Martin or his colleagues, and Omar Freire led Astana down the descent at speed.

This acceleration was followed by Astana leader Miguel Angel Lopez, but the Colombian locked his bike at one corner and skidded into a post on the side of the road. He was able to finish the stage, but before Astana could realize the error of their ways, Primos Roglic moved up the order and spoke to Freire.

"I think the problem is that it literally hasn't rained here for two or three months. And when it rained one day, it was like ice. I think most of the teams, at least half of the teams, scored touchdowns today. Luckily we were able to pass it," Lowe said at the finish.

"We had a few touchdowns, but in general we got through it. We talked last night about how we were going to approach the Tour de France, helping each other out and doing the right thing when we needed to." [While we wanted to race and put on the best show we could, we also saw how many crashes there were.

"I have to say 'congrats' to the entire peloton, minus Astana. They made themselves look pretty silly, but except for them, it's 'chapeau' to the entire peloton."

Freire defended his actions and those of his team when he spoke with AS at the finish.

"I didn't want to accelerate. It was very dangerous. When I touched the brakes, I hit the ground. The rain wasn't a problem, but when I hit the brakes I fell. It was like being on soap."

"It was a disaster. Eighty percent of the peloton must have fallen over. When I looked around, everyone had torn their kits."

"It was a very bad day,"

"The stage was soaked in water.

The stage was won by Alexander Kristoff of UAE Team Emirates, but there was another crash in the last 3km when pre-race favorite Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) fell from his shoulder. He, too, was able to finish, as was Sivakov, who finished more than 13 minutes behind the winner.