Romain Bardet won the hilly first stage of the 2024 Tour de France between Florence and Rimini, signing his fourth success on the Grande Boucle.
Escaping with great panache 50km from the finish, Bardet was able to count on monstrous work from his Dutch teammate Frank Van Den Broek (who was one of the early breakaways) to win in a breathtaking final sprint. The duo finished with a lead of 5 seconds over the peloton, led by Wout Van Aert (3rd).
The victory allows Bardet to wear the yellow jersey for the first time in his career, becoming the 95th Frenchman to wear the leader’s jersey of the Tour. It is also his 11th participation in the Grande Boucle, making him one of the most experienced riders in the peloton. Masterful.
In addition to Bardet’s victory, this first stage was marked by the failures of David Gaudu and Lenny Martinez, a few kilometres earlier. The two Groupama-FDJ riders finished the stage 29’14” behind the day’s winner and drew a line under the general classification. Dropped at the very start of the stage, Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) managed to reach the finish 39’12” after the race leader, in the company of four teammates sent to support him, as well as Fabio Jakobsen (DSM-Firmenich) in particular. The Italian Michele Gazzoli (Astana Qazaqstan) retired during the stage.
The last time two riders from the same team took the top two places in a Tour stage was in 2022, when Wout van Aert won the Rocamadour time trial ahead of Jonas Vingegaard.
Excluding the times, Mark Cavendish won ahead of Michael Morkov in Carcassonne in 2021. But if we consider two riders from the same team who distance the rest of the peloton on the first day of racing… We have to go back to 1932, when a Belgian duo, Jean Aerts and Joseph Demuysere, distinguished themselves in the direction of Caen!
© A.S.O. / Charly Lopez
[cc] Breizh-info.com2024, dispatches free to copy and distribute subject to mention and link to the original source
