The Tour de France is underway, and the opening stage from Firenze to the coastal town of Rimini had no shortage of drama. One of the bigger stories of the day was the struggle of Mark Cavendish whose storied quest for stage win 35 looked under threat already as the Manxman suffered with sickness through the hot and hilly terrain, but in the end, the day belonged to Romain Bardet and DSM-Firmenich PostNL.
The Frenchman put in a bold attack from the bunch a little over 50 km from the line, and soon bridged up to his teammate Frank van den Broek in the remains of the breakaway. The pair then embarked on a two-up time trial to the finish where they enjoyed a memorable one-two five seconds ahead of the reduced peloton, also taking the first yellow jersey of the Tour – for France.
- It was a brutal start to the Tour with a total of seven classified climbs over 206 kilometres, which amounted to a whopping 3,821 metres of climbing. As the day wore on, an alarming number of riders really suffered as the hot and humid temperatures combined with the gradients, not to mention the at-times infernal pace set by the more motivated teams at the head of the peloton.
- Cavendish was the biggest name to drop off the pace on the first and longest climb of the day, ultimately requiring several teammates to look after him and keep the dream of number 35 alive, but it was a gruelling day. While heat looked to be the most obvious factor in his struggle, the 39-year-old was seen throwing up, and with the subsequent abandon of teammate Michele Gazzoli, the suggestion of a stomach bug became all the more likely. Cavendish ultimately finished 39:12 down with four teammates and fellow sprinter Fabio Jakobsen (DSM-firmenich PostNL), safe and sound ten minutes inside the time cut.
- With the nine-man breakaway gradually shredding up ahead, Bardet attacked the Visma-led peloton about 50 km from the finish and with two kilometres left of the Côte de San Leo (the fifth of seven climbs). The three riders that remained of the break were just about a minute and a half up the road, and the French veteran made short work of making it across, enjoying the help of debutant Frank van den Broek – profiled by José Been for Escape Collective just a few weeks ago – who dropped back to help his teammate with the last stretch.
- The DSM-firmenich PostNL pair divided the effort to keep a high pace, shedding first Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) – who’d mathematically sealed the first polka-dot jersey of the Tour – then Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ), determined to keep the motivated peloton at bay.
- The combined efforts of EF Education-Easypost, Visma-Lease a Bike and Lidl-Trek trimmed the duo’s lead to dangerously small in the closing kilometres, especially on the flat run to the coast, but they had just enough in hand and a couple of handily placed corners on the way to the finish.
- Van den Broek led his teammate under the flamme rouge and down the finishing straight, and Bardet left it until the last minute to edge around his young companion to cross the line together, elated. It’s Bardet’s fourth Tour stage win but he’s had to wait seven years, and it’s also the first time he’s taken the yellow jersey at the last Tour de France of his career. 23-year-old Van den Broek will also pay a visit to the podium at his first ever Tour to pick up the white jersey of best young rider and the points jersey to boot.
- The bunch crossed the line five seconds after Bardet, led by Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), who handily robbed a few bonus seconds from Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) in fourth.
Stage 1 top 10
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Quotes of the day
It was just pure cycling. We are just two mates on the bike riding as fast as we can and going through pain. We knew it would be hard in the last 15 km, but we got more confident as we went further and further. You keep looking back and see the peloton coming but you don’t really have time to think about anything. It’s a total effort. It brings so much more because it was the only way we could do it today. I say we because he won as much as me today.”
Romain Bardet said of his and Frank van den Broek’s efforts in the post-stage press conference, still in his shiny new yellow jersey.
It wasn’t an absolutely perfect day for DSM-firmenich PostNL as their bus never made it out of Florence, and then Fabio Jakobsen struggled almost as much as Cav, but as far as plans for the stage go, they couldn’t have asked for much more. Especially with their young debutant in such a pivotal role.
At the end of the Giro, me and Romain, we sat up until one in the morning talking about how we come into the Tour, how we approach the Tour, and we said we wanted to hit the ground running. Romain prepared for this first weekend. We really thought, yeah, we think we can take yellow, maybe today, maybe tomorrow, but we’re going to go all in for it. He went home, put the hard work in, and I think today was unbelievable.”
DSM sport director Matt Winston told media at the finish.
It looked close to becoming one at times, especially when UAE Team Emirates starting smashing the pace on the climbs, but in the end all that was left were the leftovers. Crucially, all stayed safe on the sometimes narrow twisty lanes and multiple descents, and Visma-Lease a Bike’s leaders passed their first significant test, including Tour debutant Matteo Jorgenson in support of Jonas Vingegaard.
It was different [than what we expected] for sure. We expected UAE to really take it on for Tadej, but the race was quite hard – everyone lost a lot of guys early and we had to make a play. Wout is feeling good and I’m super happy to hear that. He was really confident in himself. I’m glad we started riding – we’re here to win races. I don’t know what UAE’s plan was – but it seemed like they lost some guys too early and realized they didn’t have enough to control the rest of the stage. That happens.”
Jorgenson said after stage 1 having finished safely in the lead group with Van Aert (3rd) and Vingegaard (16th).
Brief analysis
- It was a more than usually attritional opening stage by quite a margin. It was far from the once-traditional long and often tedious sprint stages that ease riders and fans into the race, and with the heat also a factor on top of the seven classified climbs, the peloton was tested to the extreme on the road to Rimini. While Cavendish was the biggest name to lose significant time, the number of riders to lose their grip on the peloton was alarming. I won’t list them all here, but the most notable (besides sprinters) include: David Gaudu, Mathieu van der Poel, Michael Matthews, Wout Poels, Kévin Vauquelin, Stevie Williams and freshly crowned French national champion Paul Lapeira.
- Groupama-FDJ co-leader Gaudu was arguably one of the biggest losers of the day, finishing in a large group that crossed the line almost half an hour down along with fellow climber-cum-white jersey contender Lenny Martinez. Perhaps though, this will free the 27-year-old who for so long has felt the weight of French hopes on his slender shoulders. Now it’s all about stage wins and breakaways. In fact, that’s almost certainly the case for the whole team – breakaway rider Madouas was the only one to finish within 18 minutes of the leaders.
- Remco Evenepoel’s GC pitch has taken an early hit with Jan Hirt suffering an unfortunate incident on the way to or from sign-on. Reportedly the Czech rider was knocked over his handlebars by a passerby wielding a backpack, resulting in a split lip and three broken teeth. The climbing domestique finished the stage over 30 minutes after the leaders, as fellow Soudal-QuickStep support rider Louis Vervaeke also appeared to have a little difficulty on the climbs. The Belgian puncheur was unable to attend Thursday’s team presentation after crashing in training, but was cleared by the team doctor to take the start.
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