On the first stage of the Tour de France, neo-pro rider Frank van den Broeck led team leader Romain Bardet to a stage win and the race's first maillot jaune in a shocking finale in Rimini.

The 23-year-old was part of an early breakaway on one of the toughest opening stages in recent Tour de France history, with seven sectional mountains and high temperatures in the Grande Pearl, which begins in Florence, Italy.

Van den Broeck dropped back to help Bardet bridge to the rest of the lead group on the Cote de Saint Leo, the third and final climb with 48.7km to go, and the pair dropped Jonas Abrahamsson (Uno-X Mobility) and Valentin Maduas (Groupama FDJ) down and set off alone to stave off a furious chase led by Visma-Lease-a-Bike, EF Education-Easypost, and Lidl-Trek.

In the last spurt, the peloton had the DSM pair in sight, but Vandenbroucke made one last long tow and handed the stage win to Bardet.

"It's fantastic," Vandenbroucke told Eurosport after the stage. 'I have no words. Coming into the first weekend, I had planned to take part in this stage.

"I did well from the beginning and Romain jumped into the bunch and I was able to help him. He picked up the pace on the last climb. But it was a headwind, very hard, and the camera bike was next to me. So it was even harder. [The last straight was very long and I could see the peloton.

Not only did Vandenbroucke finish second on this stage, but he also took the points prize and the young rider of the year award, giving his team three of the four special Tour de France jerseys, along with Bardet's maillot jaune.

Team coach Matt Winston praised Van den Broeck's achievement.

"Bardet owes his victory to Franck. Franck had a great ride on the first day of his first Grand Tour, the Tour de France, with that breakaway. He pushed hard there to get Romain to the finish in the best possible way," Winston said.

"I was really nervous in the last 15km. I knew it was going to be difficult, but I also said I was going to do my best. You never know what can happen. And I knew that by dropping the sprinters from the peloton, it would make it harder to control the back. It was hot and everyone lost their legs quickly. So I said, 'Let's just go as hard as we can. I said, 'Let's really go hard and see what happens.'"

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