Tour de France Tour de France 2024, Stage 1: Florence (Firenze) - Rimini, 206.0k

[Krzysztof_O]

So congrats to DSM guys and Bardet. Courageous action, well done! Whatever UAE were planning they stopped it three climbs from the finish. Was it because Ayuso felt weak? Or did they expect Vingo would drop like a stone after Wellens and Sivakov pace? All in all, at the end the group was not as selected as it looked it would. The peleton a bit miscalculated the gap (JV should've pulled stronger on the last climb) or did the duo get moto help in the final kms? Wout the fastest from the rest (followed by Pogi), not surprising.

 

[Unchained]

Maybe if Bardet had a little more meat to this thighs but today is not the day.

Edit: Thanks alot of GPS.

The size of the fight in the dog!!! Bardet brilliant!!!

 

[gunara]

To me it's a stupid stage that somehow find a way to have a satisfying end. DSM winning it is such a fit, a team that goes back and forth between predictable and random throughout its existence.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Okay. Dont know why you brought me into this.

I wasn't even trying to argue with you, you were disagreeing with somebody else about expectations for the stage, and I illustrated to them that it's a product of you and them having a different philosophy on the value of testing your opponents' legs early, using that prior stage where we had disagreed as a more extreme example of the same thing to illustrate that this was simply a matter of how you interpret racing in a more tactically conservative manner than a lot of fans who would take the Vino option at any and all opportunity.

 

[Nick2413]

Ended up being a group of 50.

 

[Boehmand]

Great win for Bardet.

You know that Macron paid for that motos, right?

I heard it was the WEF, together with Hillary Clinton, the illuminati and something about an alien brain worm!

 

[zlev11]

wonderful result

 

[Gigs_98]

It's been such a long time...

 

[perico]

So is Frank Van den Brouk the next Frank Vandenbroucke?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Why though? EF at least tried stuff. Ineos have riders such as De Plus and Pidcock and 6 riders in total and decide to do nothing as per usual

Why do I welcome EF having egg on their face? Because they tried to neutralise racing out of spite because their rider wasn't allowed to bridge across, despite having almost zero hope from the group behind, and because if somebody else had done that to them Vaughters would have been screaming from the rooftops about the injustice.

 

[Scarponi]

Bardet? Sprint?

That probably was what passes for a sprint in Romain Bardet's world, admittedly.

I’m a 120kg 197cm former prop forward in Union.
That was prime Cavendish sprinting to me haha

 

[Elos Anjos]

It's been such a long time...

Uran, Aru, Daniel Martin, Landa.

 

[titan31]

Surely there's no shame in going for comparatively gettable bonus seconds?

I dunno. Like he's up against some out and out sprinters there so I felt the odds of getting them (when it was only one position left) was not worth it vs the risk of any issues.

 

[veganrob]

Great stage to start the Tour. So happy for Bardet and Van Den Broek.

 

[Potomac]

It's a shame Van den Brouk didn't win the stage.

 

[slim charles]

This was really entertaining. Not in terms of GC, sure, but even that wasn't completely uneventful. Very happy for Bardet, great move 50km before the end.

 

[MartinGT]

Wow Merci Romain!

 

[scribers]

It's a shame Van den Brouk didn't win the stage.

I think he gets the white jersey tho

 

[Gigs_98]

Uran, Aru, Daniel Martin, Landa.

Landa about to get a beating by his team because Froome wasn't on his wheel.

 

[Salvarani]

I wasn't even trying to argue with you, you were disagreeing with somebody else about expectations for the stage, and I illustrated to them that it's a product of you and them having a different philosophy on the value of testing your opponents' legs early, using that prior stage where we had disagreed as a more extreme example of the same thing to illustrate that this was simply a matter of how you interpret racing in a more tactically conservative manner than a lot of fans who would take the Vino option at any and all opportunity.

I guess a lot of people dont really understand the sport and racing tactics is what we can conclude.

UAE paced the hardest climb to see what would happen. Then didnt see any reason to continue after that. Still the effort of todays stage could be felt tomorrow or later in the week.

I think a lot of riders will say it was a hard day.

This stage was never gonna create fireworks or the Vino option and criticize any team today would be dumb.

It was a very good first stage imo and great start of the race with Bardet winning. Getting to ride in yellow for the first time, I believe. Awesome.

I think tomorrow could be more fun but we will have to see.

 

[Gratemans]

All in all a really enjoyable first stage. No big crashes, UAE testing Visma, very weirdly timed attack that actually manages to make it.
And Bardet in yellow. What's not to love?

 

[Netserk]

Lol, I was almost going to write that I was impressed that the motorcycles stayed away from the front of the two breakaway riders, but then on the final kilometers there was a wall of motorbikes a few meters ahead of them, ultimately handing them the stage win.

So sad that the organizers don’t apply clear rules to this. It’s ridiculous. It hardly adds anything to the TV production that we have those camera angles from the front. I could easily live without them.

The simple solution is to film both attackers and chasers from the front. Easier to make it even like that than by minimising the drafting.

 

[titan31]

In regards EF, I think they messed up with the Healy attack. They really needed to continue the pressure after UAE dropped off in order to start dropping the other sprinters (Pedersen could have gone anyway) or else they should have been on Bardets wheel when he attacked.

Their only option when Healy went was to send Healy and Bettiol as Healy was riding against two riders at that point.

 

[Ripper]

Why do I welcome EF having egg on their face? Because they tried to neutralise racing out of spite because their rider wasn't allowed to bridge across, despite having almost zero hope from the group behind, and because if somebody else had done that to them Vaughters would have been screaming from the rooftops about the injustice.

But Vaughters is always right, always has valid complaints, and is righteous.

Wait ... you meant ex-racer and MBA-Bike-Team-Leader-Extraordinaire Vaughters ... doh! I stand corrected

 

[Boehmand]

In other news, the big GC teams had the following number of riders in the front group:

UAE 5
Visma 4
Bora 3
Soudal 3
Ineos 6