Tour de France 2010 – Stage 1

Ale Jet takes off amongst crashes…. The cycling crazy people of Rotterdam had a field day as over 450,000 people had turned up for this 2 day start of the TdF 2010. This when considering that the city boasts a population of only 600,000!! The Erasmus bridge was once again the focus spot as all the riders stopped there before starting of today’s ride.

Rotterdam also known as the City of Events in Netherlands with a reputation for some of the best sports & cultural events stands out also for its multi ethnicity and tolerance for people of all nationalities. The yearly International Fortis Marathon, the Bavaria City Racing with Formula 1 cars, the Red Bull Air Race, the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament, the Champions Trophy Hockey, the Ortel Summer Carnival, the World Port Day, the International Film Festival, the North Sea Jazz Festival and the Dunya Ortel Festival are just a few of the leading events in this city.

To add to some more trivia – Rotterdam also has three professional football clubs, including the famous Feyenoord that are based out of the city. They also became the first European city to introduce a completely pedestrianised street, called the Lijnbaan. The ultra-modern Groothandelsgebouw building, the Euromast, the Erasmus bridge by the architect Ben van Berkel, the Kunsthal by Rem Koolhaas and the KPN building by the Italian architect Renzo Piano are just a few examples of the architectural works which gives the city its unique character.

The race route was through the scenic villages & towns by the North Sea before the race entered Belgium and worked its way to Brussels, but not before touching Meise, the village which has the great cycling Eddy Merckx as its resident. Actually this year the race has been routed through Brussels as a mark of respect to this greatest of cycling champion who counts 525 individual victories to his credit and is the most respected cyclist of all time. Day 2 of the Grand Tour that Tour de France is, started from Rotterdam & ended in Brussels – a distance of 223km. No sooner had the peleton started moving than 3 riders – Lars Boom of Rabobank, Maarten Wynants of Quick Step and Alan Perez of Euskaltel-Euskadi sprinted away to form a breakaway. The trio then kept up this status for a very long time & rode for over 190km as the leaders before being swallowed up by the peleton. This ride also allowed Boom the Dutch rider to ride proudly before his countrymen & the same honour was given to Wynants, a Belgian, on entering his country. Such nuances & spirit of sportsmanship is what highlights this very individualistic sport and makes it a pleasure to watch, even for a non sportsman. But the race started of with two riders less, as Manuel Cardoso (Footon-Servetto-Fuji) and Mathias Frank (BMC Racing) both called it quits to due to injuries suffered on Day1, a broken jaw & shoulder blade & a broken thumb respectively. Early on in the race Aussie Adam Hansom – an integral part of the HTC train for delivering Mark Cavendish to the finish line crashed on road furniture and sustained shoulder injuries, but courageously rode on to finish the stage. At one point Hansom was at the front of the peleton chasing the breakaway and helping in reigning them in before the final 25kms. (Doctors later ruled him out of the tour for broken shoulder blade.) David Millar & Ivan Basso too joined the crashed riders list when a dog crossed before them with Basso suffering the most. But both riders rejoined the peleton thanks to their team who paced them back while Basso made an impressive change of shoes!! The crash stories continued with Mark Cavendish loosing a turn and taking out Jeremy Hunt of Cervalo Test Team – Thor Hushovd’s lead out man & three-time World champion Oscar Freire of Rabobank along with him just 2 km before the finish. And just as the peleton was within 1km of the finish line another pile up resulted in all GC contenders being held up. Alessandro Petacchi of Lampre-Farnese Vini – called Ale Jet in his hey days, who is making the Tour after a gap of 6 years got his chance to blast away to the finish line followed by Mark Renshaw of HTC, who ironically would have delivered Cavendish, & Thor Hushovd of Cervalo in third place. Incidentally, this is Ale Jet’s second escape victory in 2 weeks having done the Houdini act in Stage 4 of Tour of Suisse when Cavendish took out a few sprinters just 100mts away from the finish line. Yellow jersey wearer Cancellara hit the ground in the final pile up and took a summersault and is in some pain. Alberto Contador also hit a few riders on the ground and has a bump on his knees. Armstrong escaped the pileup & was seen riding in to the finish line. No serious injuries are reported in the GC riders cluster.

Over all results – Fabian Cancellara of Team Saxo Bank keeps the Yellow jersey. The Green jersey for the best sprinter changes over & will be worn by Alessandro Petacchi. Tony Martin of HTC Columbia takes over the White jersey while Team Radioshack continues as the strongest team at the race. After wining the race – Ale Jet said, “I decided to attack from afar. There was still a strong man to beat in Mark Renshaw, and when I accelerated, I realized that this would be very difficult with this uphill. But I’m hooked on this feeling, and I think I made a great sprint.” He maintained that crash or no crash, “I really did a great sprint, and quite frankly, I’m not at all sure that Cavendish could have beaten me today, because I was very, very quick.” Truly – this writer thinks that’s a bit too much of a tall claim and The Manx Missile will answer in today’s Stage 3. Watch this space for all the action & drama of Tour de France 2010. Stage 3 rolls out of Belgian city of Brussels on to Spa, a distance of 201km. Au Revoir! This is a guest post by Mr.Q, a professional quizmaster and an ardent Tour de France fan who is reporting his 2nd full tour. You can reach him at mrquizmaster@gmail.com