Romain Bardet won the first stage of the Tour de France this Saturday June 29, 2024. Thanks to a lot of work from his teammate Van den Broek, he emerged victorious from a counterattack launched 50 km from the finish. In the top 10, we find Wout van Aert (3rd), Van Gils – who will be wearing a white jersey tomorrow – (5th) and Evenepoel (8th).
After the start of the Tour de France in Bilbao in 2023, the 2024 edition also saw its kickoff be given from outside the host country. In fact, this Saturday, June 29, The Great Loop began near Florence. There had already been a hiccup at the start since Jan Hirt fell and broke 3 teeth, because of a spectator. To start the hostilities, the runners had to cover 209 km, to Remini.
The race did not favor Cavendish, who was ill. The Briton was unable to follow the peloton throughout the race. We could find Remco Evenepoel, Jonas Vingegaard or Wout van Aert in the latter. With 71 km to go, the yellow jersey contenders move into second place during the climb up the Barbotto hill. They let go of many riders, including Gaudu and his teammate Martinez, Van der Poel and De Lie. They also took the opportunity to gradually catch up on the breakaway. At 50 km from the finish, only Madouas and Abrahamsen remained in the lead, although there had been 7 of them during the majority of the race (notably with Izagirre, Van den Broek and Dujardin).
Bardet launched a counterattack, joined his teammate Van den Broek and went after the leading duo. Healy also took the initiative to avoid a complicated sprint, but was unable to keep up and ended up being caught at the end of the race. At the same time, Abrahamsen could no longer keep up with the lead. The peloton used the last descent (22 km from the finish) to reduce the gap with the leading duo. In the last km, the peloton is 10 seconds behind but will not be able to catch up with the duo. Van den Broek will be crowned best fighter. Behind it is Van Aert who becomes 3rd winner in the sprint ahead of Pogacar. An end to the level of the stage: excellent.
Tour de France: a teammate of Wout van Aert and Jonas Vingegaard falls during the first stage
There were several difficulties to climb this Saturday, starting with the Col de Valico Tre Faggi. It was Ion Izagirre, at the head of the breakaway, who went first (5 pts), ahead of Madouas (3 pts), Abrahamsen (2 pts) and Van den Broeck (1 pt). Later, it was Abrahamsen (2 pts) who passed Izagirre (1 pt) at the top of the Forche hill. The roles were exchanged at the coast of Carnaio. Abrahamsen pocketed the 5 points at the next summit and let go of Izagirre who no longer had enough juice. Madouas took the 5pts at the top of San Leo but could not follow Bardet and Van den Broek at the top of Montemaggio. Abrahamsen therefore remained polka dot jersey with 13 points, ahead of Madouas (11) and Izagirre (8). At the level of intermediate sprintit was Dujardin who went first in view of the green jersey before Abrahamsen, Gibbons, Madouas and Mohoric.
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