Stage 1 -- July 1: Liège to Seraing, 198 km (123 mi)
Peter Sagan does his best Mario Balotelli pose. Photograph: AFP
Just as yesterday was always likely to be Fabian Cancellara's stage to lose, so today was always going to be one for the men who can produce an incredible turn of power over a short distance. Like stage one last year in which Philippe Gilbert powered away to take the Yellow jersey, today was set up perfectly for a man like the Belgian or an uber talented young Slovak called Peter Sagan.
Had you logged onto any gambling website this morning before the stage began and checked on the odds for the stage, you'd have found, in no particular order, that Sagan, Cancellara, Edvald Boasson Hagen, Gilbert, and Alejandro Valverde were the favorites. So it couldn't have come as much shock to you that those five, in that order, made up the first six places with only Bauke Mollema getting his nose into fifth. Still, it made for no end of excitement as the most powerful men of cycling turned on the style.
All this drama came after a typical stage in which a small group of men, almost all from those French teams that we're sure to see feature in this kind of break on an almost daily basis, went away and were left to dangle off the front until such times that the race radios of the domestiques back in the peloton scrambled to life informing them the rate at which they would need to ride the final 25 kilometers in order to catch the group with about 10 kilometers to go setting up the bunch sprint.
At this stage, for Cancellara, it was about defending his jersey but also trying to put a few more seconds into the men around him to perhaps keep the Yellow jersey right into the mountains next week, so when he attacked up the short but very steep final climb it blew the race to pieces. He put a gap into the rest, a gap that only Sagan -- a man very much after Cancellara's heart in terms of riding style though perhaps having a little more in a bunch gallop in place of Cancellara's time-trial -- and eventually with a mighty effort, Boasson Hagen could close.
Other names such as Evans, Wiggins and Hesjedal kept with what was left of the main pack with Evans looking punchy earlier in the climb before realising he didn't quite have the raw power of the men who would make up the top six.
Valverde and Gilbert realised they had left it too late to do what both have done in a stage like this in the past to take the Yellow jersey on both occassions and were left to leave their big push to the group sprint in the final 200 meters that all but caught the front three when Sagan refused to come around Cancellara until the last possible moment and a game of cat-and-mouse almost seen them caught to the point that the rest were given the same time on the line.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Glad I took another guy down in my crash. Nothing worse than crashing alone and looking like a right fool! Sorry Tony.” -- So says Garmin's Robbie Hunter about taking down poor Tony Martin who badly injured his wrist and faces having to withdraw from the Tour.
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FAKE TWEET OF THE DAY
@MarkCavendish What kind of sprint finish for the opening race stage of the tour was that?
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STAGE 1 RESULT
1. Peter Sagan (Svk) Liquigas in 4-58-19
2. Fabian Cancellara (Sui) RadioShack-Nissan
3. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Team Sky
4. Philippe Gilbert (Bel) BMC Racing
5. Bauke Mollema (Ned) Rabobank
6. Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar all at same time
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 1
1. Fabian Cancellara (Sui) RadioShack-Nissan 5-05-32
2. Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Team Sky at 7 sec
3. Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Omega Pharma QuickStep at same time
4. Tejay Van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing at 10 sec
5. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Team Sky at 11 sec
6. Denis Menchov (Rus) Katusha at 13 sec
7. Philippe Gilbert (Bel) BMC Racing at same time
8. Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing at 17 sec
9. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas at 18 sec
10. Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin-Sharp at same time
