A special day in yellow for Team dsm-firmenich PostNL and Romain Bardet

Following on from Saturday’s sensation one-two finish and a dream race outcome thanks to some brilliant teamwork, Team dsm-firmenich PostNL headed into stage two at the Tour de France sat first and second on GC with Romain Bardet and Frank van den Broek. The former would wear the famous yellow jersey while the latter would begin the stage resplendent in the green jersey after a brilliant ride on debut on stage one.
Rolling out from Cesenatico there were a lot of attacks in the peloton before an 11-rider strong move went clear, with Bram Welten there to mark it out for the team. When it became clear there were no immediate GC threats in the break, as the closest rider to the team’s race lead was 15 minutes down, then Welten sat on the group ahead of the climbs to come. Meanwhile, Team dsm-firmenich PostNL took control at the front of the peloton with Nils Eekhoff and John Degenkolb setting a steady tempo, allowing the break’s advantage to grow over eight minutes.
Approaching the first climbs of the day the pace increased in the peloton again as other teams took over the pace setting as they looked to potentially fight for the stage win, and the gap quickly fell for the break. With a view to support the team later in the stage, Welten sat up from the break and rode his own tempo over the climbs, and when he was caught by the bunch the gap had shortened to only five minutes with over 100 kilometres of racing to go. However, a crash in the bunch then saw those teams who were pacing stop, and the gap to the break ballooned out once more, which would ultimately see strong climber Vauquelin take the win from the remnants of the break.
Riding superbly in support, the team positioned and looked after Bardet heading towards the local circuit in Bologna where they would take on the famous San Luca ascent and its stinging gradients. A strong tempo saw the GC group thin down dramatically on the first passage of the climb, to around 30 riders. Some counter attacks then followed, with Warren Barguil and the team riding tactically to also mark out the moves so they didn’t have to chase behind. In the end Barguil’s group would be caught just before the lower slopes of San Luca for the second time, where a scintillating pace was set once more, and the GC group exploded. Bardet dug deep and fought over the top of the climb alongside several pre-race GC candidates and took up the onus in the chase behind the attacking quartet. It was tight at the line, but those ahead just held on with enough of an advantage to take the yellow jersey, with Bardet and the team ending the day six seconds in arrears. Nonetheless, everyone can be proud of their efforts and the brilliant team spirit they showed.