Mark Cavendish in trouble on first stage of Tour de France, as British rider dropped early and vomiting on bike

Sir Mark Cavendish’s hopes of securing a 35th Tour de France stage victory, and eclipsing the record he currently shares with Eddy Merckx, were placed in apparent jeopardy during the first stage of the Tour de France, after the British sprinter was distanced early as he appeared to be suffering terribly in the Italian heat.

However, the 39-year-old – aided by his Astana teammates – still managed to finish comfortably within the time limit for the stage, crossing the line with ten minutes to spare alongside fellow sprinter Fabio Jakobsen, after a brutally tough and hot opening stage of the race in the Apennines.

Up ahead, meanwhile, Romain Bardet – riding the first stage of his final Tour before retirement – pulled off the crowning glory of his Tour career, stealing the show with an epic, and nail biting, escape to take the opening stage and the first yellow jersey of his career.

In what was arguably one of the most entertaining and exciting opening Tour stages in recent memory, Bardet, twice a podium finisher at the Tour, somewhat speculatively attacked the main group of favourites with just over 50km to go on the San Leo climb, before bridging across to his DSM-Firmenich teammate and member of the morning breakaway Frank van den Broek, and riding clear of their fellow escapees.

With Bardet setting the pace on the two remaining climbs, and the 23-year-old Van den Broek driving it on the flat run-in, the duo first held off a counterattack by Ben Healy and then the efforts of a motivated if slightly disjointed chase to secure a stunning one-two for the team in Rimini, with Wout van Aert and Tadej Pogačar forced to settle for third and fourth, just five seconds behind.

While Bardet and the revelatory Van den Broek stole the show in the finale, for much of the opening stage of the Tour, however, all eyes were on a suffering Cavendish.

On the second-category Col de Valico Tre Faggi, the first climb of this year’s Tour de France and just 38km from the race’s start in Florence, Cavendish was already off the pace and dropped, despite the speed in the peloton slowing as the day’s breakaway established itself.

Early in the stage, other riders appeared to be feeling the effects of the 33-degree heat in the Apennine mountains – which make up arguably one of the Tour’s hardest opening stages in years – with water and ice bags in constant use for cooling purposes.

Heartbreak for all cycling fans 💔

Mark Cavendish appears to be struggling as teammates give him water and ice to cool down 😢#letourdefrance #TDF2024 #Cycling pic.twitter.com/A6p8aOxFqY

— Eurosport (@eurosport) June 29, 2024

However, it was soon clear Cavendish was struggling the most, as he lost touch with the peloton with 160km remaining after receiving a welcome dousing of water from fellow sprinter and Cofidis rider Bryan Coquard.

Surrounded by four of his Astana teammates, Cavendish quickly lost a number of minutes to the peloton, as he appeared increasingly ragged and devoid of energy.

And by the top of the 12km-long Valico Tre Faggi, the 39-year-old was caught on the TV cameras vomiting from his bike, sparking concerns that he is currently suffering from an illness and that he wouldn’t be able to continue the race, either by abandoning or missing the daily time cut.

Was that VOMIT?! 🤮

The great Mark Cavendish is struggling on Stage 1 of @LeTour, and riders from other teams are also trying to help him! 😳

TDF 2024 | @SBS & @SBSOnDemand | June 29 - July 21#SBSTDF | #couchpeloton | #TDF2024 pic.twitter.com/qEphAmrti7

— SBS Sport (@SBSSportau) June 29, 2024

By the third climb of the day, the 10.5km-long Carnaio, which roughly marks the halfway point of today’s 206km stage, Cavendish had ceded over 11 minutes to the breakaway and seven minutes to the bunch.

According to reports coming form Italian television, Cavendish’s former lead-out man and current Astana sports director Mark Renshaw denied rumours that the British sprinter was suffering from illness, and instead claimed that he was just under “serious distress” from the heat.

However, in a welcome sign for the flailing former world champion and his Astana team, they caught Alpecin-Deceuninck rider Jonas Rickaert and sprinting rival Fabio Jakobsen (DSM-Firmenich PostNL), giving hope to the group’s battle to make the time cut.

 (A.S.O./Romain Laurent)

While believing that they could comfortably make the time cut, former pros Jens Voigt and Robbie McEwen, speaking on Eurosport, did argue though that the effort of toiling through the Apennines will leave a mark on Cavendish’s form and fitness, ahead of the first sprint stage of the race on Monday in Turin.

“Making the time cut should be possible, but they have to all keep working together. And they’re going to invest so much energy just to survive today,” Voigt said from the Eurosport motorbike during the stage.

“I think they’ll get there, not comfortably because it never is, but I think they’ll make the time cut. But this effort is going to haunt them for the next few days, scraping the barrel on day one,” McEwen added.

“But if you’re not sick and this far behind – there’s alarm bells.”

Things got worse for Astana, however, with just over 85km to go, when Tour debutant Michele Gazzolo became the first rider to abandon the race with what appeared to be a knee injury after dropping back from Cavendish’s group.

Good news for Sir Mark Cavendish, he comfortably finishes within the time limit after an incredibly tough start to this Tour de France! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/ktwyYI1yMW

— Eurosport (@eurosport) June 29, 2024

However, in the end the experienced Astana-led group had calculated the stage to perfection, guiding their leader – who light-heartedly gestured that everything was fine to the cameras approaching the finish – home with ten minutes to spare of the 49-minute time limit, leaving Project 35 alive for another day. But not without a very, very early scare.

Reflecting on his rough day in the Apennines, Cavendish told reporters at the finish: “We know what we’re doing. It’s not easy – I always say, if you’ve got my body type, don’t start cycling! Those says are gone.

“It wasn’t easy, we weren’t riding around talking. It was so hot and so hard. But we had a plan and we stuck to it. I’d have liked to have stayed one more climb with the peloton, but we’re happy to have made it, because it was so hot. And we had it under control. Onto the next stage.”

> Mark Cavendish’s top 10 greatest Tour de France stage wins

Speaking ahead of the race, Cavendish said he didn’t “have anything to lose” by targeting that record-breaking 35th stage win.

“It’s not like playing roulette, where if I don’t win here, I lose 34 Tour stages, do you know what I mean?” the former Milan-Sanremo winner said.

“I know it makes a nice story to kind of say that, but it’s as simple as that. I’ve won 34 stages of the Tour de France. I’ve won the most number of stages along with the great Eddy Merckx. I’m just trying for more. Whether that’s one more, two more, 10 more, that doesn’t matter.

“We have a job to do, which is to try and win and we’ll just take every day like that and approach it like any other bike race.”