Petacchi Dodges Crashes, Wins Tour de France Stage One

Alessandro Petacchi crosses the finish line to win Stage One of the Tour de France. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Lampre rider Alessandro Petacchi avoided three late-race crashes to win the final sprint of Stage One of the 2010 Tour de France.

Petacchi, nicknamed “Ale-Jet” because of his speed in the prime of his career four to five years ago, showed that he still knew how to fly, when the last of three crashes in the final two kilometers wiped out half the field, leaving Team Lampre’s veteran sprinter in among a handful of leadout riders, a few hundred yards from the finish line.

Petacchi cut sharply across the front of the remaining field and shot down the left edge of the road with HTC’s Mark Renshaw and Cervelo’s big sprinter Thor Hushovd.

Petacchi, whose Lampre train had been squeezed out by HTC, found himself perfectly positioned; when he turned on the jets, no one could catch him.

Interestingly, Petacchi also won the final sprint in Stage Four of the Tour de Suisse on June 15, when Mark Cavendish and Cervelo’s Heinrich Haussler collided, taking down several other riders.

The final few kilometers of the course were narrow with a few sharp bends. The first corner claimed, among others, Mark Cavendish and Oscar Freire; in fact, those two might have been the first to touch.

In the final kilometer, as the road narrowed a huge pileup stopped most of the field, as fallen riders blocked the entire road.

Garmin-Transition’s Tyler Farrar survived the two crashes and had a chance to take the stage win he has coveted since last year, but halfway to the finishing line, an Ag2R rider rammed him from behind, breaking his bike and ending his chances.

“I had perfect position. Everything was on track, and then an Ag2R guy—I think it was [Lloyd] Mondory, but I’m not sure—decided he wanted to run into my back wheel,” Farrar told Versus. “His front wheel stuck in my derailleur. I was dragging his bike down the road after that—lucky I didn’t crash.

Despite the incident, Farrar was optimistic. “I feel good. The guys were perfect today—they did exactly what they needed to do. You can’t help something like this, really.”

Farrar felt the accidents were just normal incidents in the business of competitive cycling. “Everyone ‘s nervous—it’s the first field sprint of the Tour everyone wants to start off on a good note. Things like this happen in bike racing.”

Lance Armstrong, and Alberto Contador were not involved in any of the wrecks. Cancellara went down in the big wreck but didn’t seem to be injured. The General Classification remains the same, with Cancellara in yellow, Armstrong fourth, and Contador sixth.

A Sprint Stage

This stage was a sprint stage from the moment the day dawned windless. The stage was absolutely flat, and covered terrain that is usually fairly windy, which can split up a peloton and allow attacks to escape. With not a single obstacle—not even wind—it is simply not possible for a few riders to go faster than a large group of riders with no obstacles to slow the group.

The only real question was, would Mark Cavendish of HTC Columbia win again, as usual, or would the new, improved Garmin-Transitions leadout train deliver Tyler Farrar to the line first?

The obligatory break took off right from the start: Lars Boom of Rabobank took off at the starting line, followed by Alan Perez Lezaun of Euskatel, and Maarten Wynants of QST.

The group got out only as far as the peloton wanted to let them; no matter how hard they rode, the breakaway riders were totally in control of the peloton; the gap was whatever the pack wanted it to be.

Halfway into the stage, the peloton began reeling in the break, until by a third’s distance it settled at two minutes, where the peloton wanted to keep it until the final few kilometers, when the break would be absorbed and the sprinters’ teams would set up.

Early in the stage, another obligatory moment—the collision with a loose dog— took down Liquigas’ Ivan Basso, and Garmin’s David Millar. Both changed bikes and rode on. The dog was also fine—replay shows that no rider actually struck the dog, though they crashed avoiding it.

With 30 kilometers left, the gap dropped from two minutes to half a minute in five kilometers as the break entered rolled over narrow cobbled streets. Dutch rider marten Wynants attacked the break, riding for the pride of his homeland, while the peloton swallowed up the other two.

Katusha rider Alexandr Pliuschin then bridged to Wynants and the two held a 29-second gap with 25 kilometers left.

With 8.8 kilometers left, the peloton swallowed up the breakaway, and began its cat-and-mouse maneuvering, each team watching to see where the other would set up.

Five kilometers out, Bert Grabch took the lead for HTC-Columbia, setting up their leadout train on the left. David Millar then started down the right with the Garmin train. Next Lampre squeezed into the HTC train, setting up for their sprinter, Petacchi, while Rabobank’s Oscar Freire maneuvered to find a fast wheel to follow.

The road shriunk to two narrow lanes, made even tighter by the hordes of screaming spectators edging onto the pavement.

At the two-kilometer mark, Cavendish and Freire went down, along with Jeremy Hunt. Since it was within three kilometers of the finish line, the riders who crashed were not docked any time. The rule states that riders who crash, flat or have mechanical failure in the final three kilometers are given the same time as the peloton—to eliminate confusion with team cars and mechanics trying to make repairs while others race, and to keep injured riders from losing out for accidents which weren’t their fault.

At this point it looked like a lock for Garmin, as David Millar took the team right down the middle, headed for the line. Then the second crash occurred, with riders piling up all across the road, forming an impenetrable barrier.

The few riders that weren’t caught up in the crash, tried to find a lane to ride. Tyler Farrar, still in the middle of the narrow road, seemed to have been gifted with yet another chance to win the first sprint. He started off, only to be run down from behind, which created another knot of confusion and fallen riders.

On the left-hand side of the road, HTC’s final leadout rider, Mark Renshaw, was still rolling, and next him was Cervelo sprinter Thor Hushovd. Before they could get up to speed, Petacchi dive-bombed across the road, cutting right in front of them, and set off for the line.

Petacchi earned the win. In the end, he was the fastest rider, and beating Hushovd and Renshaw in a sprint is a serious victory. No one can deny that “Ale-Jet” is fast; nor can anyone say he isn’t very, very lucky. After the Tour de Suisse and this, he must feel as if he was destined to win.

Hills for Sprinters

Stage Two is hilly—not mountainous, but not filled with gently rolling hills, either. It is long enough, at 201 km, and hilly enough, with three Cat 4 and three Cat 3 climbs, that some of the pure sprinters might get dropped.

This stage might favor power riders like Thor Hushovd or Oscar Freire—but Cavendish showed last year that he can climb when he wants to, and he might be burning inside for a chance to sprint for a stage win, after losing his chance on Stage One.

In all likelihood the hills are not steep enough to give a break any real chance to escape.

This could also be a stage for Garmin’s Dave Zabriskie or HTC’s Michael Rodgers, or Radio Shack’s Levi Leipheimer: strong riders who can roll quickly and climb well, and can still contest a sprint if the pure sprinters have dropped out. Less likely for elipheimer; Lance will want him to save his legs to help late in the Tour.

Based purely on emotion, I would like to see Saxo-Bank’s Jens Voigt steal this stage. Jens hasn’t won a stage in far too long; he always buries himself working for others. If he could drag Cancellara over the hills, the team could defend the yellow and maybe even increase their lead.

If Voigt and Cancellara were pushing the pace, Armstrong and Contador would have to be right there.

Not likely; Cancellara will want to save his legs for the pavés of Stage Three, and no GC contender will want to ride hard on the second day; they will save it for the mountains.

It is perhaps more likely that a smaller squad, like BMC or Sky, will make a big effort here to get a stage win and satisfy the sponsors. George Hincapie, in his 15th and surely final Tour, could well win himself a stage here.

Cadel Evans, winner of Stage Seven in the Giro and hero of the Balmain Boys cycling group, has a good chance here and also in Stage Three.