Mark Cavendish appeared to struggle with stomach and heat issues during the opening stage of the Tour de France, which was won by Romain Bardet.
Cavendish barely finished within the maximum time limit to keep alive his pursuit of breaking a tie with Eddy Merckx for the most career stage wins in cycling’s most prestigious race.
Vomiting while on his bike, Cavendish fell behind the pack on the very first climb — the second-category Col de Valico Tre Faggi — and four Astana teammates dropped back to help the 38-year-old.
But Cavendish hung on and finished 174th of the 175 riders who completed the stage, 39 minutes and 12 seconds behind France’s Bardet.
The Briton equalled Merckx’s mark of 34 stage wins during the 2021 Tour and came close to winning a 35th on the seventh stage in 2023.
He then crashed during the eighth stage last year, breaking his right collarbone.
Cavendish put off retirement by a year to come back and try again at breaking his tie with Merckx.
The 206 kilometre route from the Italian city of Florence to the Adriatic coastal resort of Rimini marked one of the toughest Tour starts in recent memory, featuring seven categorised climbs.
Heat was also a factor on the opening day, with the temperature soaring to 36 degrees Celsius.
Teammates dumped water over Cavendish’s head to try to cool him down. He vomited twice, once near the top of the opening climb and again on the descent.
Cavendish, who won his first Tour stage in 2008, was just hoping to get by in the opening two stages.
He is aiming for the record in the race’s third leg, the first flat stage that sets up well for sprinters.
It was a rough day for the entire Astana team as Tour rookie Michele Gazzoli — one of the riders who dropped back to help Cavendish — abandoned the race midway through the stage.
Bardet claimed the first yellow jersey of his career with his victory in the opening stage.
He attacked 50km from the line and benefited from selfless work by Team dsm–firmenich PostNL teammate Frank van den Broek to cross the line five seconds ahead of Belgium’s Wout van Aert.
Dutchman Van den Broek, who came second with the same time as his team leader, held his head in a mixture of joy and disbelief.
“I can’t believe it, it wasn’t premeditated at all, I wanted to take the morning breakaway,” Bardet said.
“There was no stress, we wanted someone up front and it was Frank who took off.
“I could see that it was going to be difficult in the heat and when I saw that we were just a minute from the breakaway rider, I said to myself that I could close the gap.
“Frank has done an incredible job and this jersey is a shared one. I’d had this stage in the back of my mind for a very long time.
“I’m very lucky because in the team we’ve written off the general classification, giving me the freedom to ride without pressure.”
Defending champion Jonas Vingegaard, who had not raced since he sustained a collapsed lung on the Tour of the Basque Country in April, finished safely in the bunch alongside fellow favourite Tadej Pogačar.
Jai Hindley, riding for Red Bull–BORA–Hansgrohe, was the best-placed Australian in 15th position, finishing five seconds behind Bardet.
Reuters/AP