Romain Bardet puts on his first yellow jersey after a maximum feat in Rimini – Libération

The French rider from the DSM-firmenich PostNL team won the first stage of the Grande Boucle, starting in Florence on Saturday 29 June. The rider who has finished on the podium twice in the Tour is donning his first yellow jersey.

It took him to win in Rimini. Frenchman Romain Bardet (Team DSM-firmenich PostNL) won the first stage of the Tour de France 2024 and, above all, the first yellow jersey of his career at the end of a monumental feat. Having gone out 50 kilometres from the finish in the seaside resort on the Adriatic coast, the Auvergnat joined his Dutch teammate Frank Van den Broek, who had set off very early. After getting rid of the last representatives of the morning breakaway, the two teammates resisted the return of the favourites for 30 kilometres, who died a few seconds behind the tandem. Wout Van Aert (Visma – Lease a bike) finished third in the stage ahead of Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates).

The story is beautiful for Romain Bardet, 33, who announced a few days ago that this Tour de France would be his last Grande Boucle. He plans to retire next year, during the Critérium du Dauphiné. And he could probably not dream of anything better, as a pre-retirement gift, than winning the yellow jersey, he who had never worn it despite two podiums on the Grande Boucle (2nd in 2016, 3rd in 2017). As he crossed the line, he thanked his teammate without whom, undoubtedly, he would not have succeeded.

Frank Van den Broek was one of the first escapees of the 2024 Tour, leaving a handful of miles after the start in Florence. A heterogeneous team on the way to Romagna: roller-sprinters like Abrahamsen and Gibbons, climbers like Izagirre and, therefore, Van den Broek, the French Champoussin, Madouas and Dujardin (Sandy, not Jean) and, surely the most dangerous of all, the downhill specialist Mohoric. Some fought to win the right to wear the first polka dot jersey (it arrives on Abrahamsen’s shoulders), others to grab points in the intermediate sprint (in Dujardin’s bag), some just to be there , to open the route for the 111th edition of the Grande Boucle.

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