Tour de France 2010: Italy's Alessandro Petacchi wins stage 1
Alessandro Petacchi fully capitalized his cycling experience as he won a crash-ridden first stage of the Tour de France 2010. One of Italy’s ace-cyclist, Petacchi’s patience and experience allowed him to get through some of the top names in the first stage. This is Petacchi’s first sprint victory of the race for seven years.
The ending stage of the ride to Brussels descended into chaos as many of the favourites were involved in a big cycle crash. The 2.5 kilometre leading to Brussels was where all the trouble began. The crash even included veteran and prologue winner Fabian Cancellara. Talking to reporters after the race, yellow jersey holder Fabian Cancellara said, “The stage was nervous all day but the end was madness. It was chaos”.
The biggest loser was Briton’s Mark Cavendish, who last year won six stages of the Tour. He missed the turn leading to the last stretch and crashed out of contention. Joining him was three times world champion Oscar Freire of Spain. However, there was some consolation for Cavendish as his Australian teammate Mark Renshaw took second place behind Petacchi. Norwegian Thor Hushovd, who beat Cavendish for the points classification green jersey last year, came in the third spot.
As far as overall points were concerned, Cancellara maintained his lead and escaped unscathed from the mayhem created after the crash. Other cyclists were not as lucky as they were directly affected by the crash which included some big names. These included names such as seven times Tour winner American Lance Armstrong and defending champion Alberto Contador. Talking about crash, Contador said, “I had to brake behind Cancellara and I was stopped by the crash.” Unlike Fabian Cancellara, who comfortably passed the crash, Contador faced tough time crossing the crashed cyclist. “But everything is fine. Another day out of the way,” said Contador. The Champion of last year’s Tour Contador even scrapped his left leg in the collision.
On the other hand, race favourite Lance Armstrong had a number of worries including a stray dog which became the main reason for the crash. Talking at the end of the day, the American said, “It was total mayhem, especially in the finish but actually all day”. According to Armstrong, the large amount of spectators who turned out also played a part in creating the crash. He said, “We had a dog running in one group who caused a crash with two of our guys. There were millions and millions of people on the roads. It is a blessing and a curse, it’s so great to have so many supporters but it makes the guys super nervous”.
The dog was one of the reasons to have caused havoc as it strayed down in the middle of the road which became a nuisance for incoming racers. The dog incident involved Briton David Millar and Ivan Basso. Millar is the overall third cyclist for the 2010 Tour de France while Basso is the current Giro d’Italia winner. According to Millar, some external factors were the source of nervousness for cyclists in Brussels even though the tracks were quite big. “It was a strange finale. The roads were reasonably wide but to win a tour stage is so huge and the bunch was so motivated and nervous that people take risks”, said Millar.
Historically speaking, the dog-incident occurred in 1973 as well between Rotterdam and Brussels. It may be a consolation for Millar and Basso that in 1973 incident, the rider who crashed was Luis Ocana. Ocana went on to win the Tour that year. However, the most seriously injured rider on this day was Australian Adam Hansen. Team mate of Cavendish, Hansen suffered a suspected broken collarbone. Nevertheless, the man of the moment was Italian Petacchi, whose strategy to start from afar paid heavy dividends as he was the most successful active racer with 155 wins. It will be interesting to see in the days to come whether Petacchi is able to sustain his lead or his top spot is taken by any other heavyweight.
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