Neo-pro Frank van den Broek performed an enormous position in Workforce DSM-Firmenich-PostNl’s shock rout on stage 1 of the Tour de France, powering crew chief Romain Bardet to the stage win and the primary maillot jaune of the race in an electrifying finale in Rimini.
The 23-year-old was within the day’s early breakaway on one of many hardest opening phases in current Tour de France historical past, with seven labeled climbs and hovering temperatures within the Grand Départ from Florence, Italy.
Van den Broek dropped again to assist Bardet bridge throughout to the stays of the lead group on the Coté de San Leo, the third to final climb, with 48.7km to go, then the pair dropped Jonas Abrahamson (Uno-X Mobility) and Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ), setting off alone to carry off the livid chase led by Visma-Lease a Bike, EF Schooling-EasyPost and Lidl-Trek.
Coming into the ultimate stretch, the peloton had the DSM pair of their sights however Van den Broek took one final lengthy pull after which eased as much as let Bardet take the stage.
“It is superb,” Van den Broek mentioned to Eurosport after the stage. “I haven’t got any phrases for it. We had the plan coming into the primary weekend to be there, and I used to be within the break.
“We have been good from the start, after which Romain made the soar to the group, and I may assist him. That was good – he paced me on the final climb as a result of I used to be actually on my restrict. Then I may do some activates the on the flat run-in, but it surely was headwind, very exhausting, and the digicam motorcycle was subsequent to us. In order that made it, made it additional exhausting.
“The final straight was so, so lengthy, and I may see the peloton, and it was simply head down and push the final vitality out of my legs.”
Not solely did Van den Broek take second on the stage, he claimed the factors classification and greatest younger rider classification lead, which, together with Bardet’s maillot jaune, offers his crew three of the 4 particular Tour de France jerseys.
The crew’s coach Matt Winston credited Van den Broek for the success.
“[Bardet] owes numerous that victory to Frank. Frank was superb there in that break, his first Grand Tour, his first day within the Tour de France, immediately within the break, ready for guys coming as much as him as a result of he knew the race would come as much as him. He pulled his coronary heart on the market to convey Romain on pretty much as good into the end as doable,” Winston mentioned.
“We have been actually nervous in that final 15k – massive roads, headwind. We knew it was tough, however we additionally mentioned, we’re gonna go for it. You by no means know what’s gonna occur. And the extra sprinters that we’re dropping from the peloton, we thought possibly it is not going to be as managed behind. It was sizzling, folks have been working out of legs shortly. So we mentioned, ‘Let’s simply go all in. Let’s actually go for it and see what occurs’.”
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