Tour de France’s first stage marred by crashes
Armstrong emerges unscathed; Cancellara keeps lead
BRUSSELS, Belgium – Lance Armstrong saw it coming: tight turns, narrow roads, big crowds and nervous riders would make crashes likely in Sunday’s first stage at the Tour de France.
He sure was right.
The seven-time Tour champion emerged unscathed after at least six crashes bedeviled the sun-baked stage through Dutch and Belgian flatlands that was won by Alessandro Petacchi of Italy, who avoided a big pileup in the final straightaway.
Race leader Fabian Cancellara tumbled to the asphalt and defending champion Alberto Contador scraped a leg against another bike after he hit his brakes in the logjam that blocked the road. Neither was seriously hurt.
The 139-mile course from Rotterdam, Netherlands, to Brussels, started out with three mid-stage crashes, one caused by a dog, and finished with another three in the last two miles.
“Total mayhem,” Armstrong said.
Even so, the overall standings didn’t change. Tony Martin of Germany remained 10 seconds behind Cancellara, who won Saturday’s prologue. Britain’s David Millar was third, 20 seconds off the Swiss rider. Armstrong trailed another 2 seconds back and Contador was sixth, 5 seconds behind his American rival.
Two of Armstrong’s best support riders on Team RadioShack – fellow American Levi Leipheimer and Andreas Kloeden of Germany – were among 12 riders who suffered cuts and bruises in the spills, according to the race doctor.
It appeared American sprinter Tyler Farrar (Wenatchee) might have an easy win. But in the last 200 yards he got bumped from behind, his bike was damaged and he had to walk it across the finish line. Farrar sits in seventh place overall 28 seconds behind Cancellara.