There are numerous methods the Tour de France may begin, similar to a brief prologue, an extended time trial or a bunch dash. The 2024 version selected none of these tried-and-tested choices, as a substitute plucking for a brutal opening stage that the peloton has declared the hardest ever option to start a Grand Tour.
Greater than 3,500 climbing metres have been packed right into a 206km route from Florence to Rimini, with temperatures nudging virtually 40C in central Italy. Dsm-firmenich PostNL scored a memorable one-two, Frenchman Romain Bardet claiming his first ever yellow jersey after he and his younger teammate Frank van den Broek pulled off a group masterclass.
However for the chasing peloton and the strung-out gruppettos behind, the Italian Grand Départ will reside lengthy within the reminiscence for its brutality, somewhat than its fairytale finale. British sprinter Mark Cavendish suffered so badly that he solely made the day’s 49-minute time reduce by 10 minutes.
“Insane, actually insane,” reacted Ilan Van Wilder of Soudal-QuickStep. “I by no means skilled something like this earlier than. The parcours, the tempo, however above all the warmth, 38C practically all day. It was horrible, actually horrible. I’m completely cooked, it’s like I’m having a heartache proper now.”
Van Wilder is predicted to be one among Remco Evenepoel’s key helpers within the forthcoming weeks and completed within the lead group behind the victorious DSM duo, however the Belgian admitted that staying hydrated and funky in the course of the stage was a relentless problem.
“I feel at one second I used to be consuming one litre per hour,” he mentioned, “after which I used to be at all times pouring additional water on my arms, legs, and head. I had my eyes in my again, my abdomen – I simply couldn’t preserve cool. At one second you overheat a lot which you could’t push anymore and that’s why a number of guys dropped early.”
Silvan Dillier, using his fifth Tour de France, was one of many final riders to cross the end line, and the Alpecin-Deceuninck domestique was bodily and mentally exhausted after a savage first stage. “The parcours was one factor, however the warmth was the subsequent degree,” he mentioned.
“It’s not been tremendous sizzling thus far in Europe [this summer] so this was a shock for everybody and I noticed many, many guys combating the warmth as we speak.
“Folks have been using with their handbrake on since you really feel you’re restricted with the warmth. Folks you’ll anticipate to journey on the entrance, to be with the primary 50 guys, have been hastily dropped out of the again of the peloton. We raced as laborious as attainable as we speak but it surely wasn’t attainable to do any extra.”
Simon Geschke, equally a veteran within the peloton, echoed Dillier’s phrases. “That was tremendous laborious, the toughest opening stage I’ve ever carried out,” the Cofidis rider mentioned. “Everybody was combating with themselves. The warmth is so limiting – you possibly can’t push the identical energy.”
American Neilson Powless of EF Schooling-EasyPost concurred. “I’ve carried out 5 Excursions and one Vuelta a España and that undoubtedly felt like the toughest opening stage but,” he mentioned. “With the warmth and the climbs, put collectively it was an insanely laborious course, and it is the identical once more tomorrow.”
The temperature and humidity ranges are anticipated to stay the identical for stage two’s traverse from Cesenatico to Bologna, though with lower than half the climbing metres as day one, the peloton shouldn’t undergo as a lot as they did en-route to Rimini.
