Tour de France Stage 1 Recap: Bardet Wins, Cavendish Struggles, and Hirt Breaks Teeth

Stage 1 of the 111th edition of the Tour de France rolled from Florence, Italy, today. All eyes were on favorites like Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), and Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan). 

Some pundits questioned whether Pogačar would take the first stage to make a point or save his efforts for later in the Tour, considering he announced this week that he recently recovered from COVID. Others wondered whether Vingegaard was ready since he hadn't raced since April. In addition to the front runners, there was no shortage of conversation around the potential impact of the three U.S. rider riders—Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Neilson Powless, and Sean Quinn (EF Education-EasyPost).

Before these questions could be answered, pre-race preparations were interrupted by a potentially painful crash. Soudal Quickstep rider Jan Hirt was knocked off his bike by a spectator's bag after signing the start sheet and broke three front teeth.

"There [are] 100 rules for the team but one with backpack made crashing Jan Hirt between the signings and the bus." posted Soudal General Manager Patrick Lefevere on X.

Despite the mishap, Hirt raced and finished the stage.

With the thermostat hovering slightly above 90 degrees Fahrenheit, riders rolled from Florence to tackle 206 kilometers (128 miles) and 3600 meters (11,811 feet). At around 185 km to go, a breakaway of seven riders pulled to the front, while Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) showed signs of cracking with about 99 miles to the finish.

As tarmac temperatures soared above 100 degrees, the heat and hills relegated more riders to the grupetto, and Cavendish slipped further from the peloton.

Around 31 miles before the finish, Romain Bardet (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) attacked the peloton and bridged the gap to his teammate Frank van den Broek, who was in the initial breakaway. Bardet and Van den Broek bridged to the two leaders at 26.7 miles, and just over a half mile later, the group of four became three. On the next climb, with about 25 miles to Rimini, the DSM duo took the lead. As the peloton chased, Bardet and Van den Broek maintained their lead and crossed the finish line 10 seconds ahead of the peloton.

Bardet, who announced he would retire at the end of this year, finally donned the yellow jersey in his 11th Tour appearance. He came close in 2016–finishing second–and third in 2017.

"The yellow jersey was the last goal of my career. But, to be honest, I had come to terms with it," said Bardet after the race. "I've been really close before. I've been within touching distance. I've just never been able to do it. Today, I wasn't sure it was going to happen but I had a great teammate with me."

Cavendish, along with almost 50 other riders, finished almost 30 minutes behind Bardet.

"It's the hardest Tour de France start I've ever done," said Cavendish with regards to the challenges of stage one.