Romain Bardet won a thrilling stage one of the Tour de France in Rimini to take the yellow jersey as Sir Mark Cavendish’s pursuit of a record-breaking 35th stage victory got off to a gruelling start with intense heat leaving him vomiting on the bike.
Bardet, riding his final Tour, attacked out of the peloton with 50 kilometres left of the 206km stage from Florence and, aided by his team-mate and Tour debutant Frank van den Broek out of the breakaway, did just enough to hold off the approaching pack by a matter of metres on the Adriatic seafront.
