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.
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.”
Ron is the chief cook and bottlewasher at Bike World News, doing everything from website design to bike reviews.
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