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 the 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 smile on Cavendish, who was ill. The Briton was unable to follow the peloton for the entire race. Remco Evenepoel, Jonas Vingegaard and Wout van Aert could be found in the latter. With 71 km to go, the yellow jersey hopefuls moved up to second gear on the climb up the Barbotto hill. They dropped many riders, including Gaudu and his teammate Martinez, Van der Poel and De Lie. They also took advantage of this to gradually catch up with the breakaway. With 50 km to go, only Madouas and Abrahamsen remained in the lead, whereas they had been 7 for most of the race (notably with Izagirre, Van den Broek and Dujardin).
Bardet launched a counterattack, joined his teammate Van den Broek and went to look for the leading duo. Healy also took the initiative to avoid a complicated sprint, but was unable to follow and ended up being caught at the end of the race. At the same time, Abrahamsen was no longer able to follow 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 was 10s behind but was unable to catch the duo. Van den Broek was crowned best fighter. Behind it was Van Aert who came 3rd, winner in the sprint ahead of Pogacar. An end of the stage level: 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, leading 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 in front of Izagirre (1 pt) at the top of the Côte des Forche. The roles were exchanged at the Côte de Carnaio. Abrahamsen pocketed the 5 points at the next summit and dropped Izagirre who no longer had enough juice. Madouas took the 5 pts 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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