VIDEO. Tour de France 2024: Romain Bardet creates the feat, wins the first stage and will wear the yellow jersey tomorrow

Romain Bardet n’en revient pas, il est maillot jaune. EPA – GUILLAUME HORCAJUELO

Romain Bardet won the first stage of the Tour de France on Saturday in Rimini where the Frenchman donned his first yellow jersey after an extraordinary performance.

Leaving the peloton 50 kilometers from the finish, the DSM climber won in front of his teammate Frank van den Broeck, with only five seconds ahead of the group favorites who failed to catch up with the two fugitives.

In a finale of breathtaking suspense, the two DSM riders resisted the return of the pack and the young Dutchman offered victory to his leader at the end of a scorching day which turned to the ordeal for many runners, except for the main favorites.

This is the fourth victory in the Tour for the 33-year-old from Auvergne who finished second in the general classification in 2016 and second the following year but did not have never worn the yellow jersey before. He is playing his last Grande Boucle this year after announcing a few days ago that he was going to hang up his duties in June 2025.

Van den Broek heroic

In this very tough stage, run in oppressive heat, Bardet and Van den Broek performed a fantastic two-man performance. Present since the start of the day in the breakaway which also included the Frenchman Valentin Madouas, the young Dutchman, 23, first waited for his leader when he extricated himself from the peloton to come and swallow the escapees one by one. He then pulled huge relays to take him to the long flat part in the finale towards Rimini, on the shores of the Adriatic Sea.

And resist the return of the peloton in the traditional game of cat and mouse which often ends badly for the escapees.