Alessandro Petacchi used patience and experience to get through a crash-filled first stage of the Tour de France and snatch his first sprint victory in the race for seven years.
The last 2.5km of the 223.5km ride to Brussels descended into mayhem with many of the favorites involved in crashes.
“The stage was nervous all day, but the end was madness. It was chaos,” said prologue winner and yellow jersey holder Fabian Cancellara, who was caught in the final, big pile-up a few hundred meters from the line.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Briton Mark Cavendish, winner of six stages last year, missed the turn leading to the last stretch and crashed out of contention alongside three-times world champion Oscar Freire of Spain.
Cavendish had the consolation of seeing teammate Mark Renshaw take second place behind Petacchi. Cancellara retained the overall lead and escaped from the chaos relatively unscathed like most of the other favorites, including Lance Armstrong and defending champion Alberto Contador.
“It was total mayhem, especially in the finish but actually all day,” Armstrong said. “We had a dog running in our group who caused a crash with two of our guys. There were millions and millions of people on the roads. It is a blessing and a curse, it’s so great to have so many supporters, but it makes the guys super nervous.”
The dog incident also involved Briton David Millar, who is third overall, and Giro d’Italia winner Ivan Basso.
“It was a strange finale. The roads were reasonably wide, but to win a Tour stage is so huge and the bunch was so motivated and nervous that people take risks,” Millar said.
If it is any consolation for the Briton and Basso, a similar incident involving a dog happened in 1973 in a stage between Rotterdam and Brussels and the rider who crashed, Luis Ocana, went on to win the Tour.
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