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Sunday, June 30, 2024

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2023 Tour de France | 2024 Giro d'Italia

Don't gamble; take all your savings and buy some good stock and hold it till it goes up, then sell it. If it don't go up, don't buy it. - Will Rogers

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Bill & Carol McGann’s book The Story of the 2023 Tour de France, 2023: The Viking Again Conquers the Tour is available in both Kindle eBook & audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.

Current racing:

• June 29 - July 21: Tour de France

Upcoming racing:

• July 27 - August 11: Olympic cycling

Latest completed racing:

• June 9 - 26: Many National Championships
• June 15 - 18: La Route d'Occitanie Cancelled because security forces busy with Olympics
• June 9 - 16: Tour de Suisse
• June 12 - 16: Baloise Belgium Tour
• June 2 - 9: Critérium du Dauphiné
• June 5 - 9: ZLM Tour
• June 7: GP Canton Aargau
• June 2: Brussels Cycling Classic

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Tour de France stage 1 reports

We posted the race organizer's report with the results.

Here's the Tour report from stage winner Romain Bardet's Team dsm-firmenich Post NL:

Producing a tactical masterclass on the opening day at the Tour de France, Team dsm-firmenich PostNL secured the stage win with a brilliant one-two through Romain Bardet and Frank van den Broek; moving into the famous yellow jersey with their incredible display.

Romain Bardet & Frank Van den Broek take the Tour's first stage.

Beginning the day with a plan of being active and making sure to be in the break, Team dsm-firmenich PostNL were just that and ensured they were in every move. Eventually the elastic snapped and Frank van den Broek made the move in what was his first ever Tour de France stage. Riding well as a group, the break built up a good lead but the bunch upped the tempo and began to reduce the gap as they headed towards the majority of climbs in the finale. In the peloton, some strong support from the rest of the squad saw the climbers well positioned where Romain Bardet launched a stinging attack to bridge across to Van den Broek in the break, as per the days plan.

The Team dsm-firmenich PostNL duo linked up, and rode admirably together, sharing the pace. Eventually they dropped the rest of the breakaway and forged on alone together at the head of the race. Giving everything for each other they kept fighting all the way to the line and they just about held off a charging peloton in a nail-biting finale. Romain Bardet crossed the line first in what is his last Tour de France while in his debut Grand Tour, Frank van den Broek took in second place after a superb ride. The team could sit up and celebrate an incredible victory and one built from pure teamwork and pure racing. With it, the team also moves into the famous yellow jersey ahead of tomorrow’s second stage with Bardet, whilst Van den Broek leads in the green and young rider competition. Next to that, Van den Broek also won the most combative rider for stage one.

Speaking after the stage an emotional Bardet said: “It’s hard to describe. I couldn’t really dream to achieve something like this. I think we just raced our bikes today and went for it as a team. With the way the route was and how Frank, Oscar and the rest of the team rode today, big respect and fair play to them. We just wanted to have fun and ride our bikes like there was no tomorrow. It was a long run together in the last 40 kilometres. When I had bridged across, I could feel that Frank was super pumped to have me there too, so we just went full gas to the line after that. We communicated a lot but in the end we didn’t have much to say, we knew what we needed to do and just go for it until the finish. Frank is a true gentlemen, half of this jersey belongs to him. I can honestly only say all of the compliments in the world to him. We’ll enjoy this as a team, it’s the perfect start to the race for us.”

A delighted Van den Broek added: “It’s amazing, I don’t have any words for it. We had a plan together to be there and competing in the first weekend. From the beginning we were good as a team and I made it into the break. Romain then made the jump to the group and I could help him. It was good as he could then pace the last climb as I was on my limit there and he waited for me. Then I could do some turns on the flat run in but it was a headwind and very hard. The last straight felt so long. I could see the peloton and then it was about putting our heads down and just pushing the last energy out of our legs, and we gave full commitment to the line, I even had cramp in the last five kilometres. Maybe in a few hours I’ll realise what’s happened.”

Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach Matt Winston concluded: “We said we wanted to come into the race in a good way and target this opening weekend. We were active in the breakaway formation and the guys did a really good job there not to miss anything. Frank made it into the main break of the day which was a perfect scenario for us and got us into the race. We talked with Romain and saw a good opportunity to jump across, and he did just that. From there Frank and Romain committed all-in together. The time gap was coming down slowly so there was always a chance we could make it or be caught late, but we managed to pull it off in the end. It’s a dream start to the Tour.”

Here’s the Tour report from third-place Wout Van Aert’s Team Visma  | Lease a Bike:

Wout Van Aert finished third in the opening stage of the Tour de France. After a gruelling race, the 29-year-old Belgian was the fastest of the reduced peloton, which miscalculated the gap to the two escapees Romain Bardet and Frank van den Broek. Jonas Vingegaard and Matteo Jorgenson also finished in the peloton.

The Grand Départ of the 111th Tour de France took place in Florence, Italy. A tough opening stage in hot conditions awaited the peloton. In the 206-kilometre stage between Florence and Rimini, the riders climbed seven categorised hills, totalling around 3,600 altimeters.

On the first climb, eight riders formed the breakaway of the day. In the peloton, the Team Visma | Lease a Bike riders were always at the front. Meanwhile, the leading group thinned out. In the end, the last remaining escapee Van den Broek was joined by his teammate Bardet. The two rode together towards the finish in Rimini. In the final kilometres, the peloton came very close, but the duo managed to stay out of their grip. The stage win was for Bardet. Van Aert sprinted to third place.

Wout Van Aert (center) finishes third. On his right is Tadej Pogacar, who finished fourth.

"I didn't expect this”, responded an emotional Van Aert afterwards. "I am very happy with this result. I couldn't have predicted to be at this level. I felt good on the road. At the moments where many riders were struggling, I still felt fresh. After the last hill we decided to go full for the stage win. The collaboration with other teams came, but the two leaders stayed out of our grasp. Hats off for that."

"It does a lot of good that I can show this again”, Van Aert added. "After the crash in Dwars door Vlaanderen, it was a tough period for me. I came to this Tour with a lot of doubts, but as the stage progressed I found the confidence again. I started to believe in it and then the guys rode full for me. I'm proud of how we performed today."

Jonas Vingegaard also had a good day. "I'm satisfied with my feeling”, said the two-time Tour winner. "It's a pity we just failed to catch the leaders, because Wout had a great chance to win. But both Wout and I felt fine today. We have to be happy with that. I'm already looking positively at the next three weeks."

Sportive director Merijn Zeeman saw a fine performance from his riders. "Today's performance is a reward for all the hard work both riders and staff have put in over the past few months. The stage win would have been nice, but we are mainly looking at all the positives we saw. This Tour de France will be a great battle."

Here's the Tour stage one report from fourth-place Tadej Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates:

Tadej Pogačar was 4th at the end of the 206 km from Firenze to Rimini, preceded by Wout Van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) in the sprint of the group that reached the arrival 5" after that the duo of Bardet-Van den Broek from dsm-Firmenich crossed the finish line. The French rider obtained his 4th win at the Grande Boucles in career thanks to an attack on the Barbotto climb (5,9 km at 7,6%, summit at more than 60 km to the arrival.

UAE Team Emirates managed to arrive relatively stress free to Rimini on a day where many sufferend in the scorching temperatures.

Pogačar: “First day was super good, I tested the legs a little bit on the climbs with quite a good pace and they were ok, even with the heat. In the end I tried to sprint also, I saw a opening and I almost beat two of the fastest guys in this race, Pedersen and Van Aert, but I was not lucky in the final: chapeau to the winner! Bardet and Van den Broek went with a very good pace and they deserved the victory.”

Stage 2 will start from Cesenatico and will end in Bologna, 199 km with two passages on the San Luca hill.

And here's the Tour report from eighth-place Remco Evenepoel's Team Soudal Quick-Step:

Firenze – the place where our team won the 2013 World TTT Championships – was a moveable feast Saturday afternoon, as huge crowds flooded the streets to see the riders gather in the historic center of the city for the start of the 111th Tour de France. For Soudal Quick-Step, the Grand Départ marked our team’s 22nd consecutive presence at the race where until now we’ve won a total of 50 stages and six distinctive jerseys.

Traveling to Rimini, on the Adriatic coast, this 206km opening stage had an elevation gain of 3600 meters spread over the day’s seven classified climbs, the last of which came less than 30 kilometers from the finish. It didn’t take long for a breakaway to form, a total of seven riders booking a place in the first move of this year’s Tour de France. From a maximum gap of five minutes, they had only one minute left in the last 50 kilometers, when Romain Bardet (DSM-Firmenich) attacked from the bunch and joined teammate Frank Van den Broeck.

The peloton gets rolling early in the stage.

The duo stayed at the front despite some fierce chasing from the teams who wanted a reduced bunch sprint, and Bardet took the win for a handful of seconds. Remco Evenepoel concluded with the main group in eighth place, an encouraging result for the 24-year-old Belgian, who had Soudal Quick-Step teammates Mikel Landa and Ilan Van Wilder for company in the final part of the stage.

“I had a good feeling today, better than the one in the Dauphiné a couple of weeks ago. My teammates did a great job, making sure I was well positioned the entire time, I didn’t suffer from the heat, so overall I think it was a good day. On Sunday things should be more hectic, with even more riders involved in the fight for victory, so it will be important to stay focused and always up there”, Evenepoel explained after the stage.

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