Romain Bardet, riding his final Tour de France, has won the opening stage of the race and taken the yellow jersey after an epic ride with his young Team dsm-firmenich PostNL team mate Frank van den Broek.
The duo - van den Broek the only survivor from the early breakaway and Bardet, who rode across to them - just about held off the flying peloton behind on the streets of Rimini.
Not long after Bardet attacked after the breakaway, as the stage dipped inside 50km to go, Ireland's Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) also attacked in a bid to catch those ahead.
However, while Healy caught and passed the others still coming backwards from the breakaway on the penultimate climb, he could not match the two team mates up front; van den Broek waiting for Bardet and then the team mates combining brilliantly.
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With the team leaders holding a lead of 1:30-1:40 for a long time on the bunch, Healy became stuck about one minute behind Bardet and van den Broek, who had early breakaway man Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) for company for a short time.
? ?? @romainbardet wins in Rimini! It’s a @dsmfirmpostnl masterpiece!
??? @romainbardet s’impose à Rimini ! Chef d’oeuvre de l’équipe @dsmfirmpostnl !#TDF2024 pic.twitter.com/8qri9w823N
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) June 29, 2024
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When Irishman Healy went up the final climb, and got no closer to the two determined breakaway men, he decided to drop back to the peloton and aid the chase.
However, the men in the bunch proved just as tired as the duo up front. And though Tour debutant van den Broek had been out front all day, he actually looked strong than Bardet, who hadn't won a stage at the Tour for seven years.
But the two leaders really showed their character, continuing to ride flat out as hard as they could all the way to the line, even though the gap back to the peloton was down to 15 seconds with 2km to go, before closing a little further.
In the end, however, Bardet and van den Broek hung on by a tiny margin, with the duo crossing the line in double celebration mode. However, Bardet crossed the line first for stage victory and yellow.
Only five seconds behind them, crash comeback back Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) won the bunch sprint for 3rd place - yet another close call on the Tour for the Belgian. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) was 3rd.
Healy finished in 50th place today, just slipping off the back of what remained of the peloton, and was clocked at 18 seconds down on winner Bardet. Sam Bennett (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), who contested the first intermediate sprint today and took 5 points, finished in a very large group, at 29:14, crossing the line in 142nd place.
More to come.
