"To ride in the yellow jersey was a truly special experience" - Romain Bardet forced to pass on Maillot Jaune after one day at 2024 Tour de France

After his emotional stage victory on the opening day of the 2024 Tour de France, Romain Bardet finally managed to get himself into the Maillot Jaune. Sadly for the Frenchman his spell in the overall race lead has been a short one.

Losing time on stage 2 as Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard ignited the general classification fight on the second ascent of the San Luca, Bardet has been forced to pass on the Maillot Jaune after just one day and now sits 5th in the updated general classification, six seconds down on the new race leader, UAE Team Emirates' Pogacar.

“It was a really nice day out there and to ride in the yellow jersey was a truly special experience," reflected the much loved Frenchman in a post-stage interview with Team DSM-Firmenich PostNL's official website. "Right now, I’m a bit disappointed to have lost it of course, because it was only a few seconds at the line, but I tried to give everything, and the team did a really good job to support me all day. We can be happy and pleased with the work we did today. Also, it’s great to start the Tour with two French victories. There is still a lot more for us to fight for here as a team so we will keep going for it in the next stages and look for our next chances.”

“I think we can be really proud of how the team rode today. The guys were sharp throughout and we stayed smart, made good decisions and gave ourselves the best chance to keep the jersey," adds Team DSM-Firmenich PostNL's sports director, Matt Winston. "However, when the attacks came on the last time up San Luca, we just couldn’t quite follow them and only lost the jersey in the end after a big chase from Romain. There’s no shame in that, we gave everything to go for it. It’s been a great start to the Tour for us as a team, but we will now hit reset now and go again tomorrow.”