Cycling-France's Bardet claims first yellow jersey in Tour stage one (updated)

PostNL

29/06/2024 17:25

By Julien Pretot
       RIMINI, Italy, June 29 (Reuters) - Romain Bardet claimed
the first yellow jersey of this year's Tour de France, and the
first of his career, as he won the opening stage of the world's
biggest race following a bold move on Saturday.
    The Frenchman, who announced his retirement for June next
year and is a two-time Tour podium finisher, attacked 50km from
the line and benefited from sterling, selfless work by his
DSM–Firmenich PostNL team mate Frank van den Broek to cross the
line five seconds ahead of Belgium's Wout van Aert.
    Dutchman Van den Broek, who came second with the same time
as his team leader, held his head in a mixture of joy and
disbelief.
    Defending champion Jonas Vingegaard, who had not raced since
he sustained a collapsed lung on the Tour of the Basque Country
in April, finished safely in the bunch alongside fellow
favourite Tadej Pogacar.
    A seven-man breakaway took shape early on in a fast and
furious start and with 50 kilometres left, only France's
Valentin Madouas and Jonas Abrahamsen of Norway were left at the
front.
    Another Frenchman, Bardet, attacked from a slimmed down
peloton and joined the fugitives after picking up his team mate
Van den Broek along the way.
    The duo dropped Abrahamsen, and then Madouas, in the
penultimate climb of the day as Mark Cavendish, who is looking
for a record breaking 35th stage win, lost further ground after
being unable to sustain the pace early on.
    Ireland's Ben Healy tried his luck solo from the bunch but
was not able to bridge the gap while Bardet and Van den Broek
opened a two-minute lead, which they maintained going into the
final descent towards Rimini.
    The EF-Education First team, hoping for a stage win with
Italian champion Alberto Bettiol, and the Ineos-Grenadiers upped
the pace of the peloton but could not put a big enough dent into
Bardet and Van den Broek's lead.
    That was until Visma-Lease a Bike and Lidl-Trek, looking to
set up Wout van Aert and Mads Pedersen for the win,
respectively, started pulling in front of the bunch.
    The gap dropped to under a minute with 11km left, and to 14
seconds two kilometes from the line as they hit the streets of
Rimini.
    Van den Broek then rode himself into the ground to make sure
Bardet would take his fourth stage win on the Tour.    
    Sunday's second stage is a 199.2-km ride from Cesenatico,
the hometown of the late Marco Pantani, to Bologna.

 (Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Toby Chopra)
 ((julien.pretot@thomsonreuters.com; +33149495370;))