The Frenchman from Team dsm-firmenich PostNL beat his teammate Frank Van den Broek to wear the first yellow jersey of his career
A climber arrives on the Riviera and this is already the big surprise of the first stage of the Tour de France. A Rimini to win is Romain Bardet who, in his last participation in the Grande Boucle, won the first yellow jersey of his career. The French of Team dsm-firmenich PostNL he put finishers and sprinters in check by anticipating his teammate Frank Van den Broek which led him to an extraordinary victory in the last kilometers.
First phases characterized by an escape carried out by Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious), Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ), Ion Izagirre (Cofidis), Clément Champoussin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Frank Van den Broek (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL), Sandy Dujardin e Mattéo Vercher (TotalEnergies) which were later added Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) e Ryan Gibbons (Lidl-Trek) thus bringing the number of athletes in command on the Tuscan-Romagnoli Apennines to nine.
Able to gain a maximum advantage of five minutes, the leaders were put in the crosshairs of theEF Education-EasyPost Of Alberto Bettioldetermined to keep the race under control but putting several sprinters in crisis starting from Fabio Jakobsen (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) e Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan Team)The latter, ready to aim for his thirty-fifth victory at the Tour de France to beat the record of victories shared with Eddy Merckx, he soon went adrift, risking finishing outside the time limit.
Along with them, the Norwegian also gradually separated Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility)the Colombian Fernando Gaviria (Movistar Team)the Dutch Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla)English Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech) and the Belgian Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck)winner of the Milan-Sanremo and the main sprinter of the group.
On the Barbotto theUAE Team Emirates took the reins of the race, halving the advantage over the fugitives, who were gradually reduced in number due to the ferocious pace, and separating other possible protagonists of the final arrival such as Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty), Magnus Cort Nielsen (Uno-X Mobility) e Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla). The real twist came from the world champion Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) who surprisingly found himself behind with 70 kilometers still to go.
On the San Leo climb it went off Romain Bardet (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) who took advantage of the group’s approach to the escapees, remaining alone with his teammate Van den Broek, chased by the Irishman Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost)remained in a water bath for a long stretch before being caught by his teammates from behind.
The tandem of the Dutch team tried to increase the advantage on the climb to San Marino, but then they had to hold on in front of the pursuit of Lidl-Trek and EF Education-EasyPost in the flat stretch towards Rimini, never being caught again and completing a powerful comeback by the group, led by the Belgian Wout Van Aert (Team Visma | Lease a Bike), far
