Petacchi emerges from chaos in Brussels

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The Tour de France hasn't even reached the feared cobblestones and massive crashes have already taken down the majority of the peloton, but one rider who has the well-demonstrated ability to dodge the bullets, Alessandro Petacchi, claimed the stage victory.

The Lampre-Farnese Vini sprinter, who also successfully avoided a dramatic Tour de Suisse crash to win there last month, took his first Tour stage win since his record Grand Tour run of 2003

Petacchi bested HTC-Columbia's Mark Renshaw and Thor Hushovd (Cervelo TestTeam) after a crash stopped several of the top sprinters in the final bend, including Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia) and Oscar Freire (Rabobank).

"It was a special finale. In the last turn, everybody came in fast and nobody wanted to brake, so there was a crash and a lot of confusion. I did a very risky sprint. I attacked from far out, despite the head wind and the false-flat road," Petacchi said.

"I think I've done a great sprint. I'm not sure that Cavendish would have beat me if he'd been there at the end because I've really done a great sprint."

The first crash in the run-in to the sprint occurred in a turn with 2km to go, when Freire was taken out by a clash between Cavendish and Cervelo's Jeremy Hunt, disrupting the front of the peloton and creating chaos for the lead-out men.

Just down the road a much larger crash happened inside the final kilometre and stopped many of the general classification contenders including race leader Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) and HTC-Columbia's Michael Rogers. Since it happened inside the protected zone, all riders involved were awarded the same time as Petacchi, and Cancellara is able to hold onto the race lead for another day.

"It was really nervous today, and at the end it was just insane," Cancellara said. "At the end, I couldn't do anything. I was also in the chaos. I hit the ground pretty hard. ... Tomorrow I will feel the asphalt that I found at the end."

Defending champion Alberto Contador (Astana) also fell in the mass pile-up and was helped to the finish line by teammate Alexander Vinokourov, but was later seen smiling and signing autographs. He later stated he had a small bruise to his leg in the fall on Twitter.

Other favourites Lance Armstrong (Radioshack), Cadel Evans (BMC), the Schleck brothers Fränk and Andy (Saxo Bank) and, for once, Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Transitions) escaped injury and will look to the hilly stage two finish, which follows some of the route from Liège - Bastogne - Liège, to try and shake the nerves out of the peloton.

A calm start

The first full stage kicked off under sunny skies, much in contrast to Rotterdam's rain during the prologue, and with a mammoth 223.5km journey down to Brussels it was a welcome sight for the 195 riders remaining in the Tour's peloton. Huge crowds, even larger than the half-million estimated to have attended the prologue, saw the peloton off.

Mathias Frank (BMC) and Manuel Cardoso (Footon-Servetto) joined pre-race abandon Xavier Florencio (Cervelo) on the sidelines after being injured in dramatic crashes during the prologue. Both finished the stage, but Frank broke his thumb, while Cardoso fractured his jaw and shoulder blade and neither started this morning.

Exiting the Dutch port, the riders briefly paused for a ceremony on the iconic Erasmus bridge before embarking on a trip along the North Sea before the drop down into Belgium. Three riders, perhaps looking to get an unobstructed view of the scenery, rode away from the peloton at the very first kilometre. It was Rabobank's Lars Boom who ignited the move, and he was followed by Quick Step's Maarten Wynants and Alan Perez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) for what would be the break of the day.

The trio built up a maximum of lead of over seven minutes as the peloton was delayed by a number of crashes, the first by Adam Hansen (HTC-Columbia) who fractured his collarbone but finished the stage, and then one involving a dog and Ivan Basso (Liquigas) that also took down David Millar (Garmin-Transitions).

As the teams of the sprinters slowly whittled away at the breakaway's advantage, the peloton was kept busy negotiating roundabouts and avoiding "traffic furniture", suffering only one more minor wreck along the way by Thomas Rohregger (Milram).

The lead reshuffled

With 30km to go, the gap was down below the one-minute mark as the leaders took on one of the cobbled avenues of Mechelen, and Wynants rolled away from his two companions as attacks began to come from the peloton.

Alexander Pliuschin (Katusha), the champion of Moldova, bridged up to Wynants as Perez and Boom were re-absorbed by the bunch. The new help pushed the now two-man breakaway's lead up from 16 seconds to half a minute with 25km to go as Garmin-Transitions took responsibility for the chase.

The Rabobank boys were busy pacing Oscar Freire back to the peloton after their sprinter suffered a flat, and the pair pulled out their lead even more, gaining nearly a minute with 20km to go. But once HTC-Columbia began to pitch in with the work, the gap began to fall again.

With 12km to go the gap had been halved, with HTC-Columbia determined to give Mark Cavendish his 11th Tour de France stage victory and vindication after his controversial crash in the Tour de Suisse.

By 8km to go, the pair were caught and the fight for position intensified, with Lampre, Cervelo, Katusha, Milram and Garmin all pushing forward to assemble their lead-out trains.

A chaotic finish

Lampre swamped the HTC-Columbia train with 3km to go, looking to deliver Alessandro Petacchi to his first stage win since 2003. They had Freire tucked in right behind until Cavendish tapped the back wheel of his teammate and veered straight through the peloton, taking Cervelo's Jeremy Hunt, Freire and a Lampre rider down into the barriers and leaving his main lead-out man to assume the role as the team's sprinter.

"After one kilometre and a half the whole race was turned up side down," Renshaw told Cyclingnews. "Once I heard the crash we had to totally rearrange. I moved into the sprinter role and at that stage usually I'm used to going with 500 meters to go and I had to wait. Unfortunately the training I've done isn't going to let me get over Petacchi."

The peloton was further split by a massive crash that happened just inside the final kilometre banner, one that stopped all the GC contenders including race leader Cancellara.

In the ensuring chaos, Garmin-Transitions had a full lead-out train for Farrar, but he got his bike hooked on the fallen machine of AG2R's Lloyd Mondory and had to sit out of the sprint.

"He did a classic Lloyd Mondory move," Farrar told Cyclingnews as he dragged his bike to the team bus. "He decided to try and commit suicide into my back wheel with 300 meters to go when I was with Petacchi and Renshaw."

Caught behind the action, Farrar had to watch as Cervelo's Brett Lancaster launched with 500m to go, too soon for the win and without Hushovd on his wheel, and then Petacchi as he blasted off to the stage win.

Hushovd powered in behind Renshaw to take third, moving him up into the hunt for the green jersey of best sprinter.

"Everyone wants to stay at the front, whether or not you're a sprinter. The roads were very narrow, that's why there were a lot of crashes, but I was able to avoid them and I was still third, so it was OK. It was hard, really hard. I am up there for the green jersey, so I am happy."

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