Stage 1: Leeds to Harrogate, 190.5km. Flat.
Every year the commentators of the Tour will say something about the crowds being the best they have ever seen, but for once, when they said it today, they were right. The stage was 190.5 kilometres in length and it resembled the side of Alpe d'Huez for all 190.5 of those kilometres. Millions on the road to watch the Tour de France, either as old fans excited to see it pass through England or as new fans eager to get a look at what it was all about; to cheer on collectively the British entrants who in recent years have become so prevalent at the sharp end of the sport. No Wiggo or Millar, but plenty of Froome, Simon Yates, Thomas and, of course, Cavendish.
Nothing could spoil the party, not for that many people over that many hours making that much noise and seeing that much action. The closest anything could come to ruining the day was Cavendish crashing and failing to grab that illustrious yellow jersey. And so it happened.
Last year it was the Orica-GreenEdge bus. Stuck under the finish line, a last minute decision by race officials to switch the finish to the three kilometre mark only to move it back to its original spot once the bus was removed, reeked havoc in the bunch and caused a crash that held up the Isle of Man sprinter taking him out of a shot for opening stage, and yellow jersey, glory.
This year it was an Orica-GreenEdge rider. Simon Gerrans had Cavendish boxed in and in a moment of desperation at the sight of the stage slipping away, Cav leaned on his Australian rival and both crashed to the ground. The fault this year could only fall on the shoulders of Cav who just two hundred metres from glory watched as the same German who took the yellow jersey twelve months before, once again swept over the line with his arms aloft. Marcel Kittel.
The big German has become a thorn in the side of Cavendish in recent years. Not so long ago Cav had sprints his own way. Winning four, five or even six stages in a Tour was the norm and if this years tour had been back then, his taking of the yellow jersey would have been a foregone conclusion as would another win two days later on the Mall in London. But Kittel has upset the apple cart. He took four stage wins of his own last year to Cavendish's two, including snapping his four win streak on the Champs-Élysées on the Tours final stage in Paris.
Kittel has taken the belt for Worlds best sprinter away from Cav for the first time in his professional career. This year I was hoping that perhaps he could rediscover his old form to make one big push at that yellow jersey. He's far from over the hill but you got the sense that all momentum was with Kittel. Still, there was a lot of hope which came crashing down with Cav as he hit the deck.
Whether he would have won the stage we'll never know and at the time of writing it's up in the air as to whether we'll find out at all how his form is in this tour. He's clearly banged up and even if he should continue it'll hardly be at 100 percent. Given the difficulty of tomorrow's stage it could be a long day in the saddle.
As the 2014 cycling season built towards this Tour I couldn't help but get very excited over the possibilities: Contador back to his best for a real showdown with Froome and Nibali going for the Tour rather than defend his Giro. Then the Cavendish, Kittel, Greipel, Sagan battle in the sprints. Every day had something to look forward to. And yet I told myself to temper that enthusiasm ... that it was probably too good for all these battles to come off without incident. The Tour is to punishing to be so kind. It's three week battle that would take its victims. Someone would crash out or get held up in a crash or get ill or lose time in some unlucky way. It happened to Irish cycling fans at the Giro when their big hope Dan Martin crashed out on the opening stage in Belfast.
And so it happened to the British fans in England with Mark Cavendish. The sprinters duel has lost a key member and the race will be that little bit lesser for it. Not less enough to ruin it however ... the Tour is always too big for that, there's always too many ready to step in and liven up the race. And so with that in mind we'll hope somehow Cav will recover and press on to give Kittle a run for his crown later in the race, but we'll do so in the knowledge that even if he does it'll be without the chance to have seen a 25 time stage winner in the Tour without the yellow on his back for yet another year. Soon the prologue will return and more time will go by and who knows when they'll return to British soil, especially for a Grand Depart tailor made for the Manxman.
Result/Overall:
1. Kittel (GIA) in 4h 44'07"
2. Sagan (CAN)
3. Navardauskas (GRM)
4. Conquard (EUC)
5. Rogers (TIN)
6. Froome (SKY) all s.t.
