First yellow jersey for his last Tour de France. Romain Bardet achieved an XXL feat with the help of his young teammate Frank Van den Broek to win the first stage of the 2024 Tour de France, this Saturday in Rimini. And at 33 years old, have the immense happiness of wearing the yellow jersey for the first time.
For his last Tour de France, Romain Bardet pulled out all the stops this Saturday with the help of his young teammate Frank Van den Broek to win the stage victory in Rimini and have the immense joy of donning the yellow jersey.
A great first for the Auvergne leader of the DSM-firmenich as he participates, at the age of 33, in his 11th and final Tour de France.
This first stage of the 2024 Tour was marked by the coup de force of the Auvergne climber, who surprised the favorites by attacking far from the finish, just over 50 kilometers from Rimini.
Romain Bardet takes risks by attacking far from the finish
The former 2nd and 3rd in the Tour de France (in 2016 and 2017), no longer interested in the general classification, took risks in this first stage, as he had not done for a long time. He set off alone in pursuit of the morning escapes on the San Leo hill, a steep climb, averaging almost 8%.
In a few kilometres, the Auvergnat from DSM-firmenich was closing in on the riders opening the road at the front, who now numbered only two: Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) and Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X).
A nice move from the DSM, because at the front the young Dutchman Frank Van den Broek (23 years old), present in the breakaway, got up and waited for his leader to be able to help him in his enterprise.
Romain Bardet wants to show himself for his last Tour de France
At the top of the San Leo climb, the DSM duo was only 20 seconds behind the two escapees.
The junction was made at the bottom of the Montemaggio hill and very quickly Abrahamsen let go, then Madouas in turn surrendered, while there were 40 km left to reach Rimini.
For Bardet and his young teammate Van den Broek, it’s “full gas” until the finish!
For Bardet and his young teammate, there was no longer any question to ask: they now had to give their all to have no regrets.
Firstly resist the return of Ben Healy, the former Irish champion who went on a counter-attack in the climb of Montemaggio and also maintain the gap against the peloton, led by the Visma of Jonas Vingegaard and the Ineos of Geraint Thomas .
On the 7th and final climb of the day, Healy got back up, beaten, but the peloton had not capitulated and kept the two escapees in its sights on the descent. The gap of a minute and a half left hope of a favorable outcome for the two men at the front, facing pursuers led by the EF Education team.
There were still a good twenty kilometers left to reach the finish line.
On the descent, the DSM duo lost none of their lead. But on the flat, with a headwind, the fight proved unequal with the peloton, where Visma and Lidl-Trek teammates came to give a hand to those from EF Education.
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The gap dropped to under a minute 12 kilometers from the finish. But Bardet could always count on the help of his teammate, who had escaped from the start.
However, it was becoming an almost impossible mission to continue to resist the peloton, on long straight lines, favourable to the pursuers and facing this headwind.
A two-person triumph after fierce resistance
Except that the 33-year-old from Auvergne had kept some under his belt and that Van den Broek also still had some strength despite his excess of energy.
In the end, the two heroes of the day kept just 5 seconds on the peloton led by Wout Van Aert (Visma), third in the stage.
Van den Broek and Bardet did not really compete for victory but finished almost side by side. The neophyte left his illustrious leader the honor of crossing the line first.
What an incredible start to the Tour for Bardet, finally in yellow while the Auvergnat had ended up giving up on this dream, which had become less and less accessible over the years.
Able to take his leader to the end, Van den Broek is rewarded with the green jersey for the points classification as well as the white for the best young rider.
Raphael Rochette
The top 20 of the first stage
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2nd stage: storming San Luca
The 2nd stage of the Tour de France between Cesenatico and Bologna (199 km) offers the first big wall of this 111th edition with the formidable San Luca hill that the peloton will climb twice in an explosive finale.
Two kilometres at an average gradient of 10.6%, with sections of almost 20%: the famous climb along monumental arcades leading up to the Basilica of San Luca promises to be one of the highlights of the first week of the Tour.
Most riders know this wall which is regularly on the programme of the Tour d’Emilie and the Giro where Primoz Roglic ravaged the competition during the prologue in 2019.
“San Luca is really the typical puncher’s hill and the guys who are going to play the general cannot ignore this kind of stage. Especially since we put bonuses at the top during the second pass (eight, five and two seconds to the first three). I really see the scenario of a big fight”, explains the Tour tracer, Thierry Gouvenou, who sees Tadej Pogacar “enjoying himself in a wall like that”.
Departure from Cesenatico at 12:15 p.m. (actual at 12:35 p.m.) arrival in Bologna at 5:19 p.m. (at an average of 42 km/h).
