Petacchi wins among pandemonium.
We have not even reached the feared cobblestones and massive crashes have already taken down the majority of the peloton. Stage 1 had multiple crashes, including three in the final 2km, that put pay to any chances of leading contenders for the stage win Mark Cavendish, Oscar Freire and Tyler Farrar. But there was one rider who emerged unscathed, Alessandro Petacchi claimed the stage victory ahead of Cavendish's Aussie lead out man Mark Renshaw and last years Green Jersey winner Thor Hushovd.
It was Petacchi's 5th TdF stage win, but but his first since 2003 when he won 4 of the first 6 stages. He has been a prolific stage winner on grand tours, with 21 stage wins on the Giro and 19 on the Vuelta to his credit as well as a points classification in both those events.
After 2 crashes early in the stage (Ivan Basso struck a dog!), Aussie Adam Hansen has fractured a clavicle and retired from the race. Things were rather pedestrian for much of the race with a 3 man break - including Lars Boom, obligatory dutchman - allowed a little leeway before the sprinters teams ramped up the pace. Last year HTC were so dominant that they barely gave other teams a chance in the sprints but it was great to see Lampre, Cervelo, Katusha, Milram and Garmin all putting in big efforts and showing HTC that there will be more of a challenge this year.
The first crash in the run-in to the sprint occurred in a turn with 2km to go, when Freire was taken out by a clash between Cavendish and Cervelo's Jeremy Hunt, disrupting the front of the peloton and creating chaos for the lead-out men.
Just down the road a much larger crash happened inside the final kilometre and stopped many of the general classification contenders including race leader Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) and HTC-Columbia's Michael Rogers. Since it happened inside the protected zone, all riders involved were awarded the same time as Petacchi, and Cancellara is able to hold onto the race lead for another day.
With a few hundred meters to race Tyler Farrar still had 3 of his Garmin team mates as a lead out he certainly looked the winner before another crash brought hium down. This left Petacchi to race ahead from a long way out and hold of Renshaw and Husovd, Aussie Robbie McEwen was 4th. Petacchi takes the Green Jersey, Cancellara retains Yellow. No KOM points as yet.
Stage 1 Result
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
7 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
8 Christian Knees (Ger) Team Milram
9 Ruben Perez Moreno (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi
10 Jurgen Roelandts (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto
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