Tour de France

Stage 1: Rotterdam to Brussels, 223km/139mi

By Cathy Mehl

With fans in the USA celebrating Independence Day over hamburgers and fireworks, cycling fans around the world were tuned in to another type of pyrotechnics in the first road stage of Le Tour.  It was a nervous peloton that raced into Brussels on Sunday’s stage 1 for the 97th Tour de France and unfortunately many of them hit the deck in a massive pile-up that took out not only men sprinting for the finish but overall contenders too.  While chaos ensued behind, Lampre’s Alessandro Petacchi ramped up his speed, stayed clear of the others and claimed his 5th Tour de France stage victory and 164th career win.  Just behind for second and third were Mark Renshaw (HTC-Columbia) and Thor Hushovd (Cervelo).

Asked post-stage to comment on the crash-filled day, Team RadioShack’s Lance Armstrong described it as “Total mayhem, definitely in the finish.  It was a typical first stage.  Everyone wants to be in the front.  There were nervous crashes; a dog caused a crash for some of our guys.  Millions and millions of people on the road is a blessing and a curse.  It’s so great to have so many supporters but it makes the guys super nervous.  The guys are always dodging people.”  He continued with, “And on these tight roads you saw in the final it shouldn’t be any surprise that there would be some crashes there.  Everybody is okay (on Team RadioShack). It just shows you how crazy it’s going to be on Tuesday.  You saw the nerves today.  We’ll have the same situation on very small roads.  The nerves and intensity will be high,” he concluded, referring to Stage 3’s visit to the cobbles.

There was no change in the general classification and Saxo Bank’s Fabian Cancellara retained his yellow jersey.  With the crash occurring in the last 3km of racing, everyone will be given the same time for the general classification.  Team RadioShack’s Lance Armstrong remains the best-placed team rider in fourth at 22-seconds off the Cancellara lead.

Beautiful warm weather greeting the peloton of 195, for the first road stage of the Tour. Straight from the gun three riders put in an attack that ended up being the break of the day.   Lars Boom (Rabobank), Maarten Wynant (Quick Step) and Alan Perez of Euskaltel Euskadi broke from the pack and headed for Belgium as the peloton rolled off the Erasmus Bridge. The trio worked well together to gain a time advantage of more than seven minutes with Saxo Bank doing most of the work at the head of the main field to keep their man Cancellara safe and sound in his maillot jaune

The gap began to come down as the peloton rolled through the 100km to go mark and steadily plunged from then on.  As the main field rolled closer to the break, attacks flew from the peloton with the most successful belonging to Alexander Pliuschin (Katusha) who bridged the gap to join escapee Wynants, and the two pushed on for the finish line.   

The teams of the sprinters went to work to bring them back and set up a mass sprint.  HTC-Columbia, Garmin and Lampre all worked from the front, and the peloton was all together with 8.5km to go.  Long straight roads made for fast traveling, but 90-degree and hairpin curves were the un-doing of a smooth ride.  At 2km to go a tight right-hander took out Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia) and Oscar Freire (Rabobank) before the granddaddy crash of them all took down two-thirds of the field with the finish line less than 1000 meters away.  Top USA sprinter Tyler Farrar(Garmin)  was headed for a good finish when the bike behind touched his wheel and the bike hung up in his derailleur, ripping the whole thing off but able to stay upright and not hit the deck. 

Stage Two on Monday is another long one at 201km, starting in Brussels and ending in Spa, Belgium.  The first half of the course is flat like today’s, but the last portion contains no less than six category 3 and 4 climbs, all packed into the final 40km of racing.  Sprint finish or surprise breakaway?  Let’s just hope it’s safe.

Team Note:  Today Team RadioShack riders sported a colored tag with their race number on them instead of the regular white ones worn by most of the peloton.  This signifies that The Shack are leading in the Teams competition for the general classification.  It will help you to pick out our boys if you memorize their race numbers, and they are alphabetical so it isn’t too hard:  21 Lance, 22 Jani, 23 Horner, 24 Klodi, 25 Levi, 26 Dimi, 27 Sergio, 28 Popo and 29 Gregy.   

Beyond the Finish Line:  The peloton rolled through the city of Meise today, home of the legendary Eddy Merckx.  Considered by everyone as the greatest bike racer of all time, Merckx holds 525 individual career victories that include five Tours de France as well as five Giros de Italia.   Celebrating his 65-th birthday last month, the Tour honored Eddy with a special jersey on today’s podium that bore the number 51 – the number he wore in his first Tour win in 1969.  

Top Ten Results

1       Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Lampre-Farnese Vini      5:09:38  

2       Mark Renshaw (Aus) Team HTC - Columbia

3       Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervelo Test Team  

4       Robbie McEwen (Aus) Team Katusha           

5       Matthieu Ladagnous (Fra) Française des Jeux                 

6       Daniel Oss (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo

8       Christian Knees (Ger) Team Milram  

9       Ruben Perez Moreno (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi   

10     Jurgen Roelandts (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto

Team RadioShack Results

55     Lance Armstrong (USA)

57     Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr)

132    Christopher Horner (USA) 

133    Levi Leipheimer (USA)

150    Gregory Rast (Swi)

163    Andreas Klöden (Ger)  0:02:37  

164    Sergio Paulinho (Por)

182    Jani Brajkovic (Slo)  0:03:14

193    Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz)  0:04:06

General Classification after Stage 1

1       Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team Saxo Bank     5:19:38

2       Tony Martin (Ger) Team HTC - Columbia       0:00:10   

3       David Millar (GBr) Garmin - Transitions           0:00:20   

4       Lance Armstrong (USA) Team Radioshack   0:00:22    

5       Geraint Thomas (GBr) Sky Professional Cycling Team   0:00:23 

6       Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana    0:00:27   

7       Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin - Transitions       0:00:28 

8       Levi Leipheimer (USA) Team Radioshack 

9       Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Professional Cycling Team    0:00:32   

10     Linus Gerdemann (Ger) Team Milram   0:00:35

Team RadioShack on General Classification

13     Jani Brajkovic (Slo)

17     Andreas Klöden (Ger) 0:00:36

56     Christopher Horner (USA)  0:00:52

67     Sergio Paulinho (Por)  0:00:54

91     Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr)  0:01:01 

132   Gregory Rast (Swi)  0:01:12

195   Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz) 0:05:40

Photos courtesy of Graham Watson