Frenchman Romain Bardet from the dsm-firmenich PostNL team has won the first stage of the 2024 Tour de France from Florence to Rimini, just ahead of his teammate Frank Van Den Broek. The two were part of a breakaway group. Van den Broek was on the run almost from the start. Bardet attacked from the peloton a good 50 kilometers from the finish and caught up with his teammate.
The sprint of the main field, which came within five seconds of the two escapees, was won by Wout van Aert (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) ahead of Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates). The 33-year-old Bardet, who is competing in his last Tour de France, takes over the yellow jersey.
This is how the 1st stage of the Tour de France 202 went4
It didn’t take long for the first attacks to begin. The pros only gave themselves three kilometers before things escalated. After several unsuccessful attempts, a group of seven broke away. They included Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious), Frank Van Den Broek (dsm-firmenich PostNL), Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ), Ion Izagirre (Team Cofidis), Clement Champoussin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Sandy Dujardin (Team TotalEnergies), Matteo Vercher (Team TotalEnergies).
But Uno-X also wanted to show itself as a wildcard team and followed up. At first, unsuccessfully, with a duo consisting of Rasmus Tiller and Odd Christian Eiking. When they were caught up again by the peloton, led by Lidl-Trek, Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) broke away. Ryan Gibbons (Lidl-Trek) followed up and the duo managed to catch up to the front after several minutes.
A heartbreaking drama occurred on the first climb of the day. Top sprinter Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan Team) suffered so much from the heat on the Valico Tre Faggi that he quickly lost contact and was towed by four teammates.
In the leading group, Matteo Vercher was the first to pay tribute to the efforts, while Ion Izagirre secured the first mountain prize of this tour.
On the next climb, the Côte de Carnaio, Sandy Dujardin (Team TotalEnergies) fell behind. After winning the first intermediate sprint of the Tour shortly before, he had to let his breakaway companions go. The best of the peloton, which was 3:10 minutes behind at this point, was Jasper Philipen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) in ninth place. A short time later, Clement Champoussin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) was also unable to keep up with the pace of the leading group.
Around 75 kilometers from the finish, on the climb to Colle del Barbotto, Team UAE appeared in concert at the front for the first time in this stage and the lead immediately shrank to under three minutes. Ion Izagirre lost contact in the leading group.
As the pace increased at Colle del Barbotto, GC captains David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) and Santiago Buitrago (Groupama-FDJ) also lost contact with the ever-shrinking peloton. Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) also fell behind.
Romain Badet with clever attack
The picture changed on the next climb of the Cote de San Leo. The main field was now only around 40 men. Team Visma | Lease a Bike took the lead and UAE Team Emirates withdrew. Around three kilometers below the summit, Romain Bardet (dsm-firmenich PostNL) attacked from the main field.
The leading group fell apart at the front. Valentin Madouas and Jonas Abrahamsen were at the front. Bardet caught up with his teammate Van den Broeck and with his help was able to reduce the gap to 20 seconds at the top of the pass. The peloton with the top favorites in the overall classification followed with a gap of 1:22 minutes and had now grown to over 60 riders. The group around Mark Cavendish, which now also included sprinter Fabio Jakobsen (dsm-firmenich PostNL), was more than 20 minutes behind.
At the start of the Côte de Montemaggio around 43 kilometers from the finish, Bardet and Van den Broeck managed to catch up with the leaders Madouas and Abrahamsen, who then fell behind shortly afterwards. Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) attacked from the peloton on this climb – nobody followed up. 1.2 kilometers below the summit of the Côte de Montemaggio, the dsm-firmenich PostNL duo then dropped Madouas.
Van den Broeck and Bardet maintained their lead even on the final climb of the stage – the Cote de San Marino. At the top, around 18 kilometers from the finish, the two still had a lead of 1:38 over the chasing field, which was now led by EF Education-EasyPost.
After the descent, Lidl-Trek and Team Visma | Lease a Bike joined in the chase and the lead of the leading duo shrank. Three kilometers from the finish, their lead was 20 seconds. Under the Flamme Rouge, it was 10 seconds. But the two teammates managed to cross the line with a five-second lead over the field.
Results of the 1st stage of the Tour de France 202
Daily ranking
1. Romain Bardet (dsm-firmenich PostNL)
2. Frank Van Den Broek (DSM-firm PostNL) st
3. Wout van Aert (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) + 0:05
Yellow jersey | Overall ranking
1. Romain Bardet (dsm-firmenich PostNL)
2. Frank Van Den Broek (dsm-firmenich PostNL) + 0:04
3. Wout van Aert (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) + 0:11
White jersey | Youth ranking
1. Frank Van Den Broek (DSM-firm PostNL)
2. Maxim Van Gils Lotto Dstny + 0:11
3. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step) + 0:11
Green jersey | Points scoring
1. Frank Van Den Broek (DSM-firm PostNL) 33 points
2. Romain Bardet (dsm-firmenich PostNL) 30 points
3. Wout van Aert (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) 22 Punkte
Dotted jersey | Mountain classification
1. Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) 13 Points
2. Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) 11 points
3. Frank Van Den Broek (dsm company PostNL) 9 Punkte
Photos: Photonews.be
