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Max Walker became only the third male Manx cyclist to compete in the Tour de France when making his debut at the weekend.
Following in the footsteps of 35-time stage winner Sir Mark Cavendish and Olympic champion Peter Kennaugh, the 24-year-old made his Grand Tour debut at Le Tour for EF Education-EasyPost.
This year’s edition of the prestigious three-week race held its grand depart in Barcelona, before heading across the border into France during Monday’s third stage.
Walker and his team-mates finished 11th fastest of the 23 teams in Saturday's first stage, a team time trial.
The octet covered the 19.5km distance in 22 minutes 44 seconds, which was 57 seconds down on the winners Visma-Lease a Bike.
Walker then played a key supporting role for his team leaders Richard Carapaz and Alex Baudin in Sunday’s second stage which covered a hilly 168km route from Tarragona to Barcelona, helping the duo finish a fine 14th and 15th respectively.
Speaking after the opening stage, Walker said: ‘My first Tour de France stage felt pretty good! It was mental with the crowds.
‘It was pretty hard as well from the start, but it was nice. Really nice. It was like 10 times bigger than any other race.
‘The whole time I was dropped off the back after I had finished my turns, it was really loud the whole way. That made it a lot easier to get to the finish.
‘And I saw my mum and brother out there in the first kilometre.'
