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The Frenchman attacked from the peloton as they wound their way up the fifth categorised climb of the day, the Cote de San Leo, eventually joining teammate Frank van den Broek who had been a part of the day's breakaway.
The duo put down a hard pace over the next 40 kilometres, working perfectly together to hold off a fast-finishing peloton by mere seconds at the finale in Rimini to make it a 1-2 and send Bardet into his first ever yellow jersey.
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Tour de France 2024
series • cycling
series • cycling
Wout van Aert (Visma Lease-a-Bike) rounded out the podium just five seconds behind the dsm-firmenich duo. In addition to Bardet's yellow, 23-year-old Van den Broek's stellar ride was rewarded with the green points jersey and white best young rider jersey.
“I had to back myself, I had to hope that this would go well," Bardet said after the stage. "I didn’t know the course particularly well but Frank [van den Broek] was really strong out in front and I felt that I had nothing to lose essentially."
“Because Frank was so strong, we were able to work together and go for it and he really deserves this win as much as me. I don’t really have the words, it’s sport.”
On a sweltering day with temperatures of 35 degrees at the start in Florence, the profile of the 206km stage featuring 3600 metres of climbing was a tall task for all the riders, especially the sprinters.
And it was the sprinter no one wanted to see fall too far behind in Mark Cavendish (Astana-Qazaqstan) who was the first to be dropped on the first ascent of the day, falling further and further back as the kilometres ticked by.
Chasing an elusive 35th stage win, the 39-year-old valiantly battled on despite seemingly dealing with illness and dehydration caused by the intense heat and challenging terrain.
With his entire team dropping back to support him where they later formed a grupetto with fellow sprinter Fabio Jakobsen (Team dsm-firmenich postNL) Cavendish managed to finish inside the time cut, 39 minutes behind Bardet.
If he can survive tomorrow's far easier-looking Stage 2 to Bologne, Cavendish will get his first look at a bunch sprint in the pancake flat Stage 3.
The Tour de France continues it's Italian Grand Depart with Stage 2 tonight, a 199km route from Cesenatico to Bologne. Watch from 8:05pm (AEST) on SBS On Demand and the SKODA Tour Tracker app before coverage on SBS starts from 8:30pm.
Stage 1 results:
