Cycling Shirts Guide

Today’s start to the major event of the Tour de France saw the race travel from Rotterdam to Brussels, the second longest stage of the Tour at 223.5 km. From the start, an aggressive breakaway trio took off on the flat course of the lowlands of the Netherlands leading into Belgium. Boom of Team Rabobank (RAB) broke out and was chased down by Wynants of Quick Step (QST) and Perez Lezaun of Euskaltel (EUS), the three of them gaining a 7 minute advantage over the pursuing peloton by the time they had reached the 17 km mark.

The stage saw several crashes with a early accident injuring Hansen (THM) who continued the race; and later a dog ran into the mass of riders causing a crash which took out Millar (GRM) and Basso (LIQ). They both remounted their bikes to continue, Basso swapping his bike later on.

As Stage 1 continued, the peloton organized themselves to mount a chase to catch the breakaway trio, aided by the Cervelo, Garmin and Saxobank teams. With 25 km left until the finish line, they finally caught Perez and Boom, with Wynants remaining out front with a new break partner Pliuschin, who ended up taking on the largest chunk of the workload, reeastablishing a 1 minute gap with 15 km to go. By 8.5 km remaining, the escapees were reabsorbed into the pack, and the sprint was starting to take shape.

The final kilometers of the race were marred by two pile ups, the first on a precarious right handed hairpin bend, which saw Cavendish and Freire lose out on the sprint finish; and the second crash completely blocked the road to all but about 40 of the riders. Alessandro Petacchi took his chance with 200 m to go and sprinted home to win Stage 1 of the 2010 Tour de France, followed in by the injured Renshaw, and Hushovd. A pleasing finish for Petacchi in his first Tour since 2004, gaining his fifth stage win, adding this one to 4 wins in 2003.

(Photo of Alessandro Petacchi, by Alex Anlicker, reproduced under Creative Commons license.)

Because the crashes took place in the last 3 km of the stage, riders retain their times, and so Cancellara holds the Yellow Jersey going into Stage 2. As for the other prized cycling shirts, Petacchi is awarded the Green Jersey after today’s exertions, and Tony Martin wears the Young Rider’s White Jersey. The Combativity Award – a White Jersey with Red Panel was awarded to Wynants who held out against the peloton for most of the race through his native Belgium. The standings look like this:

Stage 2 tomorrow sees the riders compete between Brussels and Spa and a distance of 201 km. It looks like Renshaw will be ruled out with a broken collar bone, which is a blow for sprint specialist Cavendish who relies on him for setting pace.