Bardet wins hot, hilly opening stage of Tour de France in Italy as Cavendish struggles

However, Tadej Pogacar, who is looking to follow up his Giro d’Italia title with a third Tour trophy, and two-time defending champion Jonas Vingegaard both finished safely in the main pack.

Vingegaard’s performance was especially encouraging given that he spent nearly two weeks in hospital in April after a high-speed crash at the Tour of the Basque Country, which left him with a broken collarbone and ribs and a collapsed lung, and he had not raced since.

Bardet, the Frenchman who finished second in 2016 and third in 2017 and is riding his final Tour, attacked with just over 50 kilometers to go. He caught up with his DSM-Firmenich PostNL teammate Frank van den Broek, who was in an early breakaway, and the pair narrowly held off the charging peloton on the flat finish.

Bardet walked ahead of his teammate on the line and pointed to him to say, “Thank you.”

“It’s crazy. I didn’t know the course very well, but Frank was really, really strong at the front and then I felt I had nothing to lose,” Bardet said of his rookie teammate, who was riding his very first Tour stage. “He really deserves this win as much as I do because he has done all the work.”

It was Bardet’s fourth stage win of his Tour career, and first since 2017. He had never worn the yellow jersey before.

“The yellow jersey was the last goal of my career. But to be honest, I was at peace with it, said Bardet, who had announced his retirement this year. “I’ve been very close. I’ve been within reach. I’ve just never succeeded. Today I wasn’t sure if it would happen, but I had a great teammate with me.”

The 206-kilometer (128-mile) route from Florence to the Adriatic coastal town of Rimini included seven categorized climbs and more than 3,600 meters (11,800 feet) of ascent. Temperatures soared to 36 degrees (97 F).

Cavendish surrendered twice and fell well behind on the very first climb, jeopardizing his quest to break a tie with Eddy Merckx for the most career Tour stage wins. But he finished just within the time limit. Cavendish and Merckx each have 34 wins.

World champion Mathieu Van der Poel was forced to abandon the race halfway through the stage when Pogacar’s UAE Team Emirates squad began to accelerate at the front of the peloton on the fourth climb of the day.

The first four stages will take place in Italy, marking the first time in the Tour’s 121-year history that the race will start in France’s southern neighbor.

Bardet and Van den Broek finished in the same time of just over five hours.

Wout van Aert won the sprint for third place with a deficit of five seconds, and Pogacar finished fourth with the same time.

“It was incredibly hot and then we had the wind in our faces, so it was a very extraordinary scenario that we had to deal with,” Bardet said.

In the general classification, Bardet leads Van den Broek by four seconds, with Van Aert 11 seconds behind in third place. Pogacar is fourth, 15 seconds behind — the same gap as Vingegaard.

There was talk of an accident early on for Czech rider Jan Hirt, who broke three teeth when he collided with a spectator’s backpack in the neutral zone before the actual start of the stage. As an important supporter for Remco Evenepoel at Soudal-Quick Step, Hirt still managed to complete the stage.

Sunday’s Stage 2 is also hilly, with a 199-kilometre (124-mile) route from Cesenatico to Bologna. The stage is dedicated to 1998 Tour champion Marco Pantani, who was from Cesenatico, and passes a museum dedicated to the Italian rider, who died in 2004.

Due to a conflict with the Olympic Games, the Tour will finish in Nice on July 21, five days before the start of the Games in Paris.

AP Cycling: https://apnews.com/hub/cycling