The Tour is back! And what a stage to kick things off! On a course reminiscent of a world championship route, Philippe Gilbert took the first yellow jersey, and pre-race favourite Alberto Contador lost over a minute to his main rivals after a massive pile up just 10 kilometres from the finish on the 191km trek from Passage du Gois to Les Herbiers. In fact the final 10km had everything, and race director Christian Prudhomme should be acknowledge for creating such an exciting first day.
It all happened in the last hour after the day’s break was caught. As the entire peleton flew towards the finish, an Astana rider clipped a spectator on the edge of the road and bounced into the middle of the peleton, taking down around 30 riders in the process and blocking the road for around 75 per cent of the peleton. The MASSIVE loser was Contador, who had been loafing in the back half of the bunch, and as a result was caught up in the hold up and missed the split in the race. Realising this, the leading bunch, which contained almost all the other GC contenders (with the exception of another Spaniard, Sammy Sanchez), put the hammer down to put as much time into Contador as possible, and by the finish they had put over a minute into the three time champion. Amazingly that has left Andy Schleck as the outright favourite for the race. Personally I think that swing in sentiment is a little over done and Contador has more than enough time to make up his losses. Let us not forget he won the Giro by over 4 minutes earlier this year with relative ease. I still want to be on Contador at this stage.
The final climb up to the finish at the Monte des Alouettes was just as exciting as the crash 10km out. The peleton was again thinned following a crash at the base of the climb, with a number of GC contenders being held up. But unlike Contador, with the crash coming in the final 3km of the stage they lost no time. The hot pre-race favourite for the stage, Gilbert, missed the carnage, but looked to have blown his chance for victory when Fabian Cancellara produced a massive acceleration with just over a kilometer to go. But the Swiss superstar could not maintain his pace up the final ascent, and Gilbert showed why he was so dominant in this year’s Ardennes Classics, with a perfectly timed counter burst to overtake Cancelllara and put the race beyond doubt. Even a star such as Gilbert was struggling by the last 100 metres of the finishing climb, and a late charge by Cadel Evans was only thwarted by the arrival of the finishing line. Evans ride was superb and showed again that he is one of the world’s premier riders. It also allowed to put a few valuable seconds (3) between himself and his GC rivals. With Cancellara washed away over the last 500 meters, world champion Thor Husvhod made it a podium to die for, finishing third on the stage.
But the plaudits must go to Gilbert, who defied all the pressure of being the pre-stage favourite to take the first yellow jersey with ease. Gilbert is easily the best one day rider in the world at the moment, and with the form he is showing at the moment he is laying claims to being one of the top 5 one day riders in the history of cycling. A world championship is now the only thing missing from his CV.
The big loser was obviously Contador, who showed some tactical naivety to lose time simply by not riding at the front of the peleton in the final hour. We will have to wait and see whether the Spaniard will pay for his mistake come the finish in Paris.
Yellow Jersey – Philippe Gilbert
Green Jersey – Philippe Gilbert
Polka Dot Jersey – Philippe Gilbert
White Jersey – Geriant Thomas
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