Tour de France 2024 started with a blast in Florence, Italy. Surrounded by historic buildings in the epicenter of the Renaissance, stage 1 marked the start of the second Grand Tour of the 2024 season.

In cooperation with Italian authorities, Tour de France race organizer A.S.O. had chosen a both beautiful and spectacular route for the first stage of this year’s race. Stage 1 took the riders from Firenze to Rimini on a 206-kilometer route that featured no less than three Category 2 climbs and four Category 3 climbs. The stage would conclude with a fast downhill ride to the finish in hectic Rimini.

A group of eight riders established an early breakaway group after a fast and hectic start of the stage. The riders were Ryan Gibbons (Lidl-Trek), Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious), Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ), Ion Izagirre (Cofidis), Clement Champoussin (Arkea B&B Hotels), Frank van den Broek (Team DSM-Firmenich-PostNL), Jonas Abrahamsen (Team Uno-X Mobility), and Sandy Dujardin (TotalEnergies). The group had an advantage of more than five minutes over the main peloton on the Category 2 Colle Tre Faggi, which was the first climb of the day.

Team Visma – Lease a Bike and Jayco-Alula were leading the chasing peloton. 

Mark Cavendish got dropped on the first climb of this year’s Tour. The Astana rider is riding his final Tour de France after extending his career for an additional season after he crashed out of last year’s Tour before winning a stage. A teammate was sent to his aid and tried to cool the overheated Manx missile with water.

Fellow sprinters Fabio Jacobsen (Team DSM-Firmenich-PostNL) and Fernando Gaviria were also dropped in the heat. EF Education-EasyPost and Ineos-Grenadiers had taken over control at the front of the main peloton.

Leading riders in the Tour de France peloton were spotted wearing their FlowBio hydration sensors to further optimize their hydration and performance in the hot weather conditions of this year’s Tour.

Multiple riders were dropped from the front breakaway group as the riders contested the Passo del Carnaio (Category 3). The remaining riders were Gibbons, Mohoric, Madouas, Izagirre, Van den Broek, and Abrahamsen. As the breakaway sextet reached the summit, 108 kilometers remained of the stage and the advantage over the main peloton had been reduced to 03:50 minutes. The main peloton was spearheaded by EF Education-EasyPost in support of their Italian ace Alberto Bettiol, who had high ambitions in today’s stage.

The advantage of the breakaway sextet was increased on the fast and dangerous descent that followed. The lead was almost five minutes with ninety kilometers remaining.

Several of the heavier riders, including sprinters, had been dropped from the main peloton and were chasing 02:35 minutes behind the favorites. Cavendish, meanwhile, was 06:25 minutes behind the main peloton. Cavendish was ill and throwing up while trying to ride his bike in a proud struggle to remain in this year’s Tour – the last of his proud career.

Things were mainly unchanged as the riders contested the Cote de Barbotto (Category 2; 5.9 km; 7.6%). Only the front of the main peloton had been reshuffled as UAE Team Emirates, RedBull-Bora-Hansgrohe and Ineos-Grenadiers had joined the hard fun.

Izagirre was dropped from the breakaway group later on the Cote de Barbotto and this made it possible for Abrahamsen to be the first rider across the top, which also secured him the virtual lead in the Best Climber Classification. But more mountain challenges remained in today’s stage 1 of Tour de France 2024.

Izagirre was caught by the chasing main peloton on the descent and the Tour de France peloton was now approaching the Cote de San Leo (Category 2; 4.8 km; 7.7%). UAE Team Emirates and Team Visma – Lease a Bike were controlling the pace at the front of the main peloton for their respective general classification favorites.

Frenchman Romain Bardet (Team DSM-Firmenich-PostNL), who is riding his last Tour de France, attached solo from the main peloton on the Cote de San Leo. The riders in the main peloton were now firing on all engines and this caused the advantage of the breakaway group to be reduced to 01:20 minutes with just fifty kilometers remaining of today’s stage 1.

Abrahamsen and Madouas were now the only remaining riders at the front. Bardet, who had been joined by teammate van den Broek, were chasing twenty seconds behind.

The riders were approaching Le Fort de San Leo – an ancient fortress situated in a strategic location at the top of the mountain where it overlooked the whole valley and could control the mountain passages. Perhaps Bardet would be in need of his own fortress to protect him from the main favorites chasing from within the main peloton. Built in 1441, the Fortress of San Leo is situated on the border of the Marche and Romagna regions and is known as the death location of Count Cagliostro.

Bardet and van den Broek caught Madouas, while Abrahamsen got dropped. Meanwhile, Ireland’s Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) attacked from the main peloton to try to bridge the gap to the Bardet group.

Frenchman Madouas got dropped with forty kilometers left of the stage. Bardet and van den Broek continued as front duo while being chased by Healy.

With 28 kilometers remaining, Healy was still chasing in between the front duo and the main peloton. He was suffering with a one-minute deficit to the Bardet group. He likely should have attacked when Bardet went instead of hesitating. 

EF Education-EasyPost moved to the front of the main peloton to increase the speed in support of their stage favorite Alberto Bettiol. Teammate Healy’s attack had been in vain, and he fell back to the peloton to join the chase effort.

With 12.8 kilometers remaining, sprinter teams such as Lidl-Trek had sent their riders to the front of the main peloton to reel in the Bardet-Van den Broek duo before the finish line. EF Education-EasyPost riders were still assisting with the chase effort as were riders from Team Visma – Lease a Bike. 

Bardet and his teammate had ban advantage of 35 seconds with just five kilometers remaining. Would a Frenchman win the first stage of this year’ Tour de France or would the chasing peloton reel them in before the finish line?

Visma – Lease a Bike, Lidl-Trek and EF Education-EasyPost riders were fighting hard at the front of the chasing main peloton, and they were grinding seconds off the advantage of the Bardet duo. With 1.5 kilometers remaining just eleven seconds separated the groups.

Frenchman Romain Bardet managed to cheat the sprinters and cross the finish line as winner of stage 1 of Tour de France 2024. Great courage and initiative had paid off for the French rider. DSM-Firmenich-PostNL Teammate Frank van den Broek finished second, while Wout van Aert completed the stage podium for Team Visma – Lease a Bike. Romain Bardet will wear the yellow jersey in tomorrow’s stage 2.

Stay tuned to Roadcycling.com for complete coverage from Tour de France 2024.

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