The 2013 Tour de France was the 100th Tour de France. It ran from 29 June 2013 to 21 July 2013, starting in the city of Porto-Vecchio in Corsica, with the island hosting the first three stages. Corsica was the only Metropolitan region, and Corse-du-Sud and Haute-Corse were the only Metropolitan departments, through which the Tour had never previously passed and the organisers wanted to combine the 100th edition of the Tour with the Tour's first ever visit to Corsica.
The opening stage was a standard road stage rather than the more usual Individual time trial or "Prologue".
To accommodate the tour entourage during their stay in Corsica, the organisers chartered the Mega Smeralda cruiseferry to house members of the organisation, media and others who work on the Tour and to host press conferences, although the riders stayed in hotels in and around Porto-Vecchio.
Stage 1
29 June 2013 — Porto-Vecchio to Bastia,
The first stage of the race was a relatively flat stage on the east coast of Corsica and was expected to end with a sprint finish, with Mark Cavendish looking to claim the sprint and with it the maillot jaune for the overall race leader.
The Tour started out inauspiciously for top favourite Chris Froome of , as he crashed in the neutralised area before the true beginning of the stage although he was not hurt. Once the flag came down to signal the true beginning of the stage, five riders immediately distinguished themselves as the day's principal escape group – Jérôme Cousin of , 's Juan José Lobato, rider Lars Boom, Juan Antonio Flecha representing , and Cyril Lemoine from . The peloton did not allow them very much lead, as the mostly -paced main field kept the time gap between two and three minutes for the majority of the stage. The fourth-category Cote de Sotta came at the mark in the stage, the only climb on the day's parcours. This meant that the first rider, from the breakaway, over the line would be the first holder of the polka-dot jersey. It was Lobato who crossed first, beating out Cousin and Boom, and Lobato pulled on the climber's jersey at day's end.
At that point the breakaway sat up (stopped riding hard) and attempted to rejoin the peloton behind them, since the stage's flat profile (and its prestige) meant it was extremely unlikely they could stay away for victory. The time gap got to as little as 39 seconds before eventually getting as high again as four minutes. After both the break and the peloton had passed through the feeding station, it was again reduced to 40 seconds. Four of the riders again looked to sit up and abandon their efforts, but Cousin continued to ride, and eventually so did the whole breakaway group. For these efforts, Cousin was awarded the daily combativity award at stage's end. The time gap then got as large as four minutes, allowing the breakaway to contest the intermediate sprint as well. This one went to Boom ahead of Flecha. A few minutes later, three of the Tour's top sprinters André Greipel, Mark Cavendish, and Peter Sagan sprinted for the points available to them, coming across the line in that very order. The breakaway were at last caught with remaining in the stage, and the teams set up for the anticipated sprint finale.
It was about this time that reports came through of a problem at the finish line – a bus for the team had become stuck under the finishing arch. It was too tall to pass through. It disrupted the electronic timing for the stage, but the more pressing problem was the fact that the finish line was not clear to be covered by the cyclists. Race officials tried to extricate the bus, having no success for several minutes as the riders came nearer and nearer to the finish line. As the peloton passed through the to go mark, the decision was sent out over race radio for the finish line to be moved to the banner representing to the (original) finish line. Around this same time, the day's first major crash occurred, sending, among numerous others, 2012 Giro d'Italia champion Ryder Hesjedal off his bicycle. At approximately to go the original finish, meaning to go the revised finish line, teams such as and had begun their leadouts.