The «Grand départ» of the Tour de France 111, from Florence to Rimini for 206 km, sees the winner of the Frenchman Romain Bardet, who started at -50 together with his DSM teammate Frank Van den Broek in pursuit of five escapees, and then left alone ten km later. For them a final advantage of a few seconds over the group of the great favorite Pogacar and the returning Vingegaard.
The first all-Italian stage (even if with a passage to San Marino, another first) in the history of the Grande Boucle already sees serious problems for Mark Cavendish: having suffered a crisis on the very heavy climb of Colle Valico Tre Faggi, the British rider from Astana was felt bad on the descent and at -60km he was already 17′ behind, finally reaching over half an hour. With him for a stretch, and then slipping further back, the Dutchman Fabio Jakobsen.
It went better, in terms of results, but not in terms of ailments, for Jan Hirt: hit during the transfer by a spectator’s backpack, he fell, breaking three teeth on the handlebars but continued the stage anyway.
Also to be noted is the first retirement, unfortunately by the 25-year-old Brescian of Astana, Michele Gazzoli, who left after just over 120 km, raising the white flag due to illness. Seven Italians remain in the race: the other Astana Davide Ballerini, Alberto Bettiol (EF), Giulio Ciccone (Lidl), Davide Formolo (Movistar), Gianni Moscon (Soudal), Luca Mozzato (Arkea), and Matteo Sobrero (Bora-Hansgrohe).
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