The Frenchman wins the first stage of the Tour de France in Italy. The riders have to suffer greatly in temperatures of up to 38 degrees.
Romain Bardet celebrates his victory in Rimini.
Daniel Cole / AP
(sda) Romain Bardet ensures a dream start for the French in the 111th Tour de France on unfamiliar terrain. The 33-year-old wins the first stage as a breakaway rider, starting in Florence and finishing in Rimini.
At the start of this year’s Grand Boucle, the riders had to overcome 3,600 meters of elevation, more than ever before in a first stage, on the 206 km long route through Tuscany to the Adriatic coast in temperatures of up to 38 degrees. Quite a few of them reached their limits. The 39-year-old sprint star Mark Cavendish, for example, who could become the sole record winner ahead of Eddy Merckx with a 35th stage win and who had to throw up on the way, reached the finish almost 40 minutes behind. Stefan Bissegger and Silvan Dillier also lost around half an hour on the winning time – a good ten minutes more than Stefan Küng, the third Swiss in the starting field of this year’s tour.
No clash between the favourites yet
Romain Bardet used the challenging section to make his long-held dream of the yellow jersey come true. The 33-year-old from Team DSM managed to cross the finish line as a breakaway rider with a five-second lead along with his young Dutch teammate Frank van den Broek. It was Bardet’s fourth stage win in the Tour, and for the first time he was rewarded for his efforts with the leader’s jersey. Belgian Wout van Aert took third place in the main field sprint ahead of Tadej Pogacar.
The favorites around Pogacar and defending champion Jonas Vingegaard did not have a major exchange of blows at the exhausting start in the Italian heat. According to Pogacar, this may happen on Sunday. “Today is not the time yet. But I think Sunday or the stage on Tuesday will be super tough for the favorites,” said the Slovenian season dominator, who wants to be the first rider since Marco Pantani 26 years ago to win the double of Giro d’Italia and Tour de France, before the start of the stage.
Start on Sunday in the birthplace of Pantani
On the second day of the tour, the pros will start on Sunday in Cesenatico, the birthplace of the Tour de France winner Marco Pantani, who died in 2004. The stage ends in Bologna after 199.2 km and a few short but tough climbs. A breakaway rider with all-round qualities could win there. It is also possible that the favorites will face off for the first time.
