Incredible Photos from the Greatest Race on Earth

With crash-filled stages, an American competing for the podium, and an astonishingly dominant performance by Chris Froome of Team Sky on Tuesday, it鈥檚 been an exciting start to the 2015 Tour de France. These images do the action justice.
To check out the complete photo essay on the Tour鈥檚 first week, .

Milan-San Remo champion Alexander Kristoff’s high-tech equipment belies the pain of the race’s first week in Northern Europe.

In what may be his last Tour de France, Fabian Cancellara earned the yellow jersey after stage 2 only to crash out of the race the next day.

Former Paris-Roubaix winner Johan Vansummeren carried the signs of the Tour’s many opening-week crashes up the brutally steep Mur de Huy finish in southeast Belgium during stage 3.

Froome and his Sky teammates set a blisteringly fast pace during the team time trial, coming in just one second slower than the winning team, BMC.

The racers hit nasty weather the day after the cobbles of Roubaix.

That harsh, windy weather tore the race to shreds along the North Sea.