The first stage of this year’s tour is a flat circuit through Philadelphia and the surrounds. There are 4 laps of 46km plus a short section of the race that leads on to the circuits, giving us a grand total of 207km. The only difficulty of the day is a short climb up to a bridge which loops back over the course, which can reach up to a maximum of 10%.
The big question is who will take the first stage of this race, and the yellow jersey to go with it? The bookmarker’s favourites are Maksimov, Greipel and Serebriakov. Of these three Greipel is left to his own devices, whereas the other two have at least one lead-out man to help them reach the line.
And here we are, the 63 man peloton gets ready for three weeks of very hard racing through the United States.
But it looks like no one is really ready to get this whole thing under way and for the first 30km of today’s race, there is no movement. Finally, the first attacks begin! Starting us off are Emilien Viennet Lars Tommersen Jon Insausti
The three start to work well together and they pull out a couple of minutes fairly easily. In fact, their gap reaches two minutes just as they go over the bridge and we get our first real look at this only difficulty.
We get to the end of the first lap, which is marked by an intermediate sprint. Viennet leads out and is looking strong, but Tommersen comes from behind him and steals the points and the 6” time bonus. Insausti is relegated to third place.
It also gives us our first look at the finishing line, which is a gentle 2% incline on the run in and then a slight downhill for the final 3km. The lead after the first lap is out at 3’53”.
CSC and WWE are doing all of the work at the head of affairs, with Polito and Blanco being particularly noticeable. They will be trying to set it up for Greipel and Maksimov, who will want to seize the yellow jersey in this tough race.
Through the second lap, with 92km left, the sprint point is again tightly contested. Tommersen is again able to take the points ahead of Viennet and Insausti. Their lead is now out to 6’14”.
Now it is time for the tempo to rise a bit. The gap can only reach one more second for a maximum of 6’15”. Blanco and Armstrong are setting this up. Armstrong has recently been informed that he will not be getting a contract renewal this year, so this could be a chance to advertise himself to other teams for next year, maybe someone like the D2 AMEX squad?
The gap starts to come down slightly and this time around the break can once again see the peloton from the top of the bridge. This is the second last time that they will ride over this small climb.
With 5km remaining on this second last lap, and the pace fairly high, Thomas Ziegler puts in an attack to try to bridge up to our break of the day.
He isn’t up to the front by the third time through the intermediate sprint, so the same three riders will sprint it out. And, showing that some things are just plain predictable, the same result occurs through this sprint, with Tommersen beating Viennet and Insausti in third. Tommersen has picked up an amazing 18” in time bonuses today, and if he just finishes with the peloton he will almost certainly be sitting in second place overall.
The gaps through this point, with one 46km long lap remaining are as follows:
1’54”
30”
2’24”
3 Leaders
--->
Ziegler
--->
Peloton
With the gap already this low things aren’t looking good, but with rouleur Ziegler on his way up, there might yet be hope. On the front of the peloton now are several riders. Doing most of the work are Soler, Polito, Hoste and Szmyd.
With 30km to go, Ziegler joins the trio up front and starts pulling straight away. The gap is down to 1’37” and it is dropping fast.
With the gap coming down, the break start to find it harder to work with each other and so Viennet attack on our final climb of the bridge.
Everyone holds his wheel with no problem so he puts in another dig on the descent. This time Insausti drags the other three back, digging in to his own reserves.
On the flat run in, the attacks amongst these four don’t stop. With 21km to the finishing line and the gap down to only 43”, Tommersen puts in a dig, and Ziegler follows him.
In fact Ziegler is clearly feeling strong, as he goes around him and sets off alone.
With 16km to go his gap back to the peloton sits at 40”. The bunch has already picked up the other three breakaway riders. In fact, with 12km remaining Ziegler is picked up too by the speeding Hollister train, who are looking to set up Serebriakov.
With 5km remaining Hollister are still on the front with the only train here.
The order is as follows: Dempster Martinez Serebriakov Marksimov Greipel Manan Kip Jorgenson
Manan pushes his way past the big frame of Greipel and with 2500 metres to the line and Dempster comes off, but not only that, Martinez is blown too, leaving Serbriakov without any lead-out left. He is going to have to put in a very long sprint. A gap starts to open up behind Manan.
Greipel closes the gap and his acceleration brings him forward. He is looking strong under the 1km to go kite.
Greipel comes up to Manan, who launches his own sprint at this point. This boxes in Maksimov.
Manan and Greipel are neck-and-neck.
Who will win it?
Manan takes a great victory for his Japanese team, and just beats Greipel at the line.
Maksimov takes third, with the fast-finishing Feillu taking fourth. Serebriakov holds on for a disappointing fifth. Kip is sixth, with De Fauw taking seventh Jorgenson can only manage eighth. Kopp is an unexpected ninth and Sicard is an even more unexpected tenth.
Sad news as we learn that amongst some of the domestiques who were dropped today, there is the name of Tommersen, whose work to get all the bonus seconds comes to nothing. The other breakaway riders also are dropped. Looking at the jerseys, it is no surprise that Manan takes the overall lead, as well as the points jersey. Maksimov is in the young rider jersey thanks to his third place finish.
