Ale-jet is last man standing again as the peloton is decimated by finishing straight crashes
Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-Farnese Vini) won the first stage of the Tour de France between Rotterdam and Brussels, which ended in chaos as a succession of crashes in the final kilometre took out most of the peloton. Mark Renshaw (HTC-Columbia) finished in second place, with Thor Hushovd (Cervélo TestTeam) in third at the end of an eventful 223.5km.
“It was a very special final, with the crash in the last corner,” said Petacchi of his first Tour stage since 2003. “I have not seen the fall, but I saw that everyone went into the turn extremely fast, and nobody wanted to brake.
“So inevitably, there was real confusion in the final,” he continued, “but I decided to attack from afar. There was still a strong man to beat in Mark Renshaw, and when I accelerated, I realized that this would be very difficult with this uphill. But I’m hooked on this feeling, and I think I made a great sprint.”
“For seven years I did not win on the Tour,” he added, “and to do so here is always very different from other victories. This morning at the start, I was pretty nervous, but during the day I started to revive as a Tour rider. Now I am relaxed.”
The Italian, who has been less prolific lately than he was a few years ago, denied that he owed his victory to the fact that many other sprinters were denied “I do not think it was an unexpected victory,” he said, “because I came here to sprint and win. Now I hope that another situation will present itself, with all the other sprinters. But I’m not sure that Cavendish could beat me today if he had been there, because I really did a good sprint.”
As expected the stage was dominated by a long breakaway; this came almost as soon as the flag was dropped at the end of the race’s neutral zone. As the peloton left the Dutch port of Rotterdam an attack from former World cyclocross champion Lars Boom (Rabobank) was joined by Maarten Wynants (Quick Step) and Alan Perez (Euskaltel-Euskadi). The three riders worked well together and the lethargic peloton allowed them to go.
After just 4km the trio had a lead of 4 minutes, which reached a maximum of 7’30” by the 50km mark before the peloton began to react.
In a stage packed with incidents the first crash came after around 40km when Adam Hansen (HTC-Columbia) came down. The Australian rejoined the peloton and finished the stage, but his team confirmed that he had broken his collarbone and he will not start tomorrow. 15km later a dog escaped into the peloton, bringing down Giro d’Italia winner Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Doimo) and David Millar (Garmin-Transitions); both riders remounted unhurt.
Meanwhile, the increased speed in the peloton, thanks mostly to the Saxo Bank team of race leader Fabian Cancellara but with help from RadioShack, Astana and Liquigas-Doimo, reduced the breakaway’ lead considerably. After 80km it was reduced to 3’40”, but not wanting to catch the three riders too soon the peloton relaxed and as the race crossed the border into Belgium almost 70km later it was still 3 minutes.
With the sprinters’ teams massing forward though the breakaway riders were living on borrowed time; Lampre-Farnese Vini, HTC-Columbia and Gamin-Transitions were still anxious not to make the catch too soon though and allowed them to dangle less than 2 minutes ahead.
With 30km to go the peloton had the three riders in sight but Wynants was unwilling to go without a fight as the race crossed his home country. The Belgian attacked the other two riders with 30km to go, as the race wound its way through the town of Hombeek, but he was still no more than a handful of seconds clear.
As Boom and Perez were absorbed by the peloton an attack came from Moldovan champion Alexandr Pliuschin (Katusha); he quickly caught Wynants and the two of them began to pull away from the peloton once more. Between them they managed to pull out almost a minute, but the peloton was in no mood to give away a stage win and they were eventually reeled in with 8.5km to go.
As the peloton entered the Belgian capital the sprinters’ teams began to battle for the front of the peloton. The HTC-Columbia team of Mark Cavendish held the lead at first, but were soon overtaken by the Garmin-Transitions team of Tyler Farrar. Petacchi’s Lampre-Farnese Vini teammates were prominent at the front, as were the Cervélo TestTeam on behalf of Thor Hushovd.
On a sharp right hand corner with less than 2km to go Cavendish appeared to be having problems with the turn as he fought to hold the wheel of his lead out man; the Manxman leaned on a number of riders and a handful of riders crashed. As well as Cavendish, three-time World champion Oscar Freire (Rabobank) came down, as did Hushovd’s lead out man Jeremy Hunt (Cervélo TestTeam).
Just after the peloton passed under the 1km to go banner a crash in the middle brought riders crashing down right across the road. With the majority of the peloton either coming down or caught behind the crash, a small group of around 30 riders was all that remained to contest the stage victory. With Cavendish left behind, Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Transitions) looked to be favourite to take the stage on July 4th, his country’s national holiday.
As the small group began to switch from the right to the left side of the road though, Lloyd Mondory (AG2R-La Mondiale) found his front wheel taken from him and he became the latest rider to come down. Mondory’s lose bike attached itself to the rear derailleur of Farrar, ending his chance of contesting the victory. The American rode on for a few metres before dismounting and finishing the stage on foot.
Petacchi then opened up his sprint and, with an acceleration that recalled the days of his peak five years ago, he immediately opened a gap over the few riders left with him. Like the chaotic fourth stage of the Tour de Suisse, the Italian managed to completely avoid the carnage around him; unlike that time he raised his arms to celebrate the victory.
Behind Petacchi the other riders fanned out to fight for second place; Cavendish’s lead out man Renshaw, with his captain left on the road almost 2km behind him, managed to hold off the much more experienced Hushovd and Robbie McEwen (Katusha).
The remains of the peloton trickled over the line behind them, but with all the crashes happening within 3km of the finish, they were all given the same finishing time. Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) keeps the yellow jersey, ahead of Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia) and Millar.
Result stage 1
1. Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Lampre-Farnese Vini
2. Mark Renshaw (Aus) HTC-Columbia
3. Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervélo TestTeam
4. Robbie McEwen (Aus) Team Katusha
5. Matthieu Lagadnous (Fra) Française des Jeux
6. Daniel Oss (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo
7. Jose Rojas (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne
8. Christian Knees (Ger) Team Milram
9. Ruben Perez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
10. Jürgen Roelandts (Bel) OmegaPharma-Lotto
Standings after stage 1
1. Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Saxo Bank
2. Tony Martin (Ger) HTC-Columbia @ 10s
3. David Millar (GBr) Garmin-Transitions @ 20s
4. Lance Armstrong (USA) Team RadioShack @ 22s
5. Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky @ 23s