Photo credit © Roberto Bettini
If today's Stage 1 is any indication, this years tour is going to be one heck of a race. Phillipe Gilbert must have smiled when he saw today's stage profile. The short punchy climb at the finish of the stage was perfectly sutied for this year's king of Ardennes Classics and newly crowned Belgium National Champion. Successfully covering any last minute threats, Gilbert simply pulled away from the front end of the splintered peloton that suffered multiple crashes in the final 5km, including 'Spartacus Fabian Cancellara with 600 meters to go.
No one was really surprised however, as Gilbert was the favorite from the flag drop shortly after the neutralised traverse over the Passage du Gois. The big surprise was the huge time gaps that some of the overall contenders found themselves suffering on the first day of the 2001 Tour de France. An inattentive spectator looking in the opposite way of the hard charging peloton collided with an Astana rider to cause a massive pileup, with which provided no forward progress. Just a tangled mess of lycra, spokes and tempers. At the end of the day Alberto Contador, the defending champion, found himself holding an 80 second deficit on his main rivals, including Andy Schleck, Cadel Evans, Chris Horner, Levi Leipheimer, Ivan Basso, and Bradley Wiggins. I'm having a hard time remembering a time when a defending champion has had such a terrible start to their defense. Maybe Pedro Delgado in 1989 when he missed his start time for the opening prologue and put over 2 1/2 minutes on himself, eventually finishing third to Greg Lemond's victory. Rough day and a big hole to climb out of.
Look for the top teams to finish in this order.
- Team Sky
- HTC-Highroad
- Radioshack
- Liquigas
- Garmin-Cervelo
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