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TDF v PCM - Stage 1
Stage 1 - London to Canterbury
Auge, Kuschinski, Grivko, Bichot and Millar formed a breakaway group that was caught, leading to a mass sprint finish.
1 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Predictor - Lotto 4.39.01 (43.65 km/h) 2 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Crédit Agricole 3 Tom Boonen (Bel) Quickstep - Innergetic 4 Sébastien Chavanel (Fra) Française des Jeux 5 Romain Feillu (Fra) Agritubel 6 Robert Förster (Ger) Gerolsteiner 7 Oscar Freire Gomez (Spa) Rabobank 8 Marcus Burghardt (Ger) T-Mobile Team 9 Francisco José Ventoso Alberdi (Spa) Saunier Duval - Prodir 10 Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team
SNDeluxe Nicolas Vogondy began the first attack of the tour and was joined by around 10 others, including Nick Nuyens and Phillipe Gilbert. With 120km to go they held a 7 minute lead, but 20km later they were caught and a dangerous counterattack was launched. Pereiro, Thomas, Burghardt and Bruseghin. They were caught before the final mountain sprint where finally a piece of realism happened: David Millar led the peleton over the top to take 2nd in the climb. 1st was Julian Dean who had attacked to get the points. In the sprint, McEwen could not do anything and Cavendish was comprimised by having to work for Eisel. This resulted in: 1 Daniele Bennati LAMPRE - FONDITAL 4h42'36 2 Tom Boonen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t. 3 Erik Zabel TEAM MILRAM s.t. 4 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC s.t. 5 Thor Hushovd CREDIT AGRICOLE s.t. 6 Robbie McEwen PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t. 7 Danilo Napolitano LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t. 8 Oscar Freire RABOBANK s.t. 9 Heinrich Haussler GEROLSTEINER s.t. 10 Mark Cavendish T-MOBILE TEAM s.t. 18 Sebastien Chavanel FRAN?AISE DES JEUX s.t. 19 Romain Feillu AGRITUBEL s.t.
A few big names could not keep up with the pace near the finish and lost some time, this included: Rasmussen, Burghardt and Forster losing 3 minutes, Zabriskie dropping 4 minutes and Pereiro falling 4 and a half minutes behind.
GCT Albasini produced the first attack of the tour, which formed a breakaway including Vaitkus, De la Fuente and around 7 others. They rurvived until just before the final KoM. In the sprint, McEwen forced to lead too early and as he faded a norwegian stormed through. 1 Thor Hushovd CREDIT AGRICOLE 4h39'05 2 Bernhard Eisel T-MOBILE TEAM s.t. 3 Robbie McEwen PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t. 4 Daniele Bennati LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t. 5 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC s.t. 6 Tom Boonen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t. 7 Robert Forster GEROLSTEINER s.t. 8 Gert Steegmans QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t. 9 Heinrich Haussler GEROLSTEINER s.t. 10 Alejandro Valverde CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t. 23 Sebastien Chavanel FRANCAISE DES JEUX s.t. 32 Romain Feillu AGRITUBEL s.t. It was a disappointing stage for the Brits as Wiggins lost time, and Cavendish, Thomas and Wegelius all looked set to lose time before clawing back to the peleton in the last few kilometres. (Don't worry, I won't do a Brit-watch for every stage, just for this stage only).
Real Name Bradley Wiggins set out on his Millar-esque solo attack. Unfortunately for him, he was immediately joined by 7 others. The break was again caught behind the final intermediate sprint and the final KoM. Coming into the sprint, McEwen was right at the front but as his rivals broke away, he stayed behind Rodrigues' wheel, until 0.8km yo go. By then it was too late. 1 Tom Boonen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC 4h40'36 2 Bernhard Eisel T-MOBILE TEAM s.t. 3 Francisco Ventoso SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t. 4 Robbie McEwen PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t. 5 Thor Hushovd CREDIT AGRICOLE s.t. 6 Oscar Freire RABOBANK s.t. 7 Heinrich Haussler GEROLSTEINER s.t. 8 Daniele Bennati LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t. 9 Erik Zabel TEAM MILRAM s.t. 10 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC s.t. 27 Sebastien Chavanel FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t. 70 Romain Feillu AGRITUBEL s.t.
Cavendish again clung on at the back of the peleton, along with Rasmussen. Kashechkin and Savoldelli both lost over 3 minutes though as just 3 Astana riders finished in the peleton: Vinokourov, Ivanov and Kloden.
