Le Tour 2010 - Sleepless nights arrive!: Prologue and Stage 1

So, time to suffer the annual self-determined sleep deprivation schedule, also known as Le Tour!

Interesting Prologue I thought, with a short 8.9 km power-biased course around Rotterdam rendered more tricky by its technicality and some variable weather throughout the run.  The guys who nominated to go off early generally seemed to be on the short side of that decision, although Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia) turned in a blinder to head the table for the best time for near two hours until the penultimate dig by Fabian 'Spartacus' Cancellara (Saxo Bank).

Fabian bruised and bashed the course for the win and the maillot jaune by 10 seconds.  Helped undoubtedly a little by the easing of the showers and the drying out of the course, he nevertheless grabbed the race by the scruff of the neck and shook it a little. He also displayed a little caution in some of the tighter sweepers, slowing noteably compared to a few of the others, so clearly it was a thinking race from him.

Other performances of note for me? Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) for a real stinker 69 secs off the pace, Lance Armstrong (Radioshack) for a thought-provoking 4th, Alberto Contador (Astana) for a strong performance overshadowed by who he didn't beat, Tyler Farrar (Garmin - Transitions) whom I thought was excellent, Cadel Evans (BMC) who looked a little cautious and unconfident at times and hence possibly down a little more than expected, and Bradley Wiggins (Sky) who really sucked.  Guess I should also acknowledge David Millar (Garmin - Transitions) for third but I find the guy really grating, with his 'anti-drug' stance when he still can't fully acknowledge the fact he was intentionally doped to the gills and caught at it. Still, guess he's no exception...

Then, Stage 1 from Rotterdam - Brussels, a longish 223.5km in total. What was seen as a potentially tricky and dangerous course with the potential to create a little havoc did indeed turn out that way, but not for the initial reasons outlined.

With sunny skies and little wind, the peloton set off in the best of conditions, and a bunch of 3 hares, which included Quick Step's Maarten Wynants, immediately scuttled off to provide the day's carrot.

For the vast majority of the journey it remained that way with the three leaders going out to a quite sizeable 7+ minutes at one stage whilst the peloton fluffed about with road furniture, a big ponderous bunch, and a few crashes. One included poor old aussie Adam Hansen (HTC-Columbia) who broke his collar bone - again! - and a second involving yet another dog wandering out onto the course. FFS - who brings their dog to these things?

The footage of the poor mutt was particularly poignant - slinking out in front of the group, most likely after deciding to go for a wander and have its owner scream at it to get back, the beast then did a comic double take checking out the impending doom of the advancing bunch, followed by a half-hearted metre dash each way sideways, and finally throwing in the towel mentally and dropping to the ground with tail between its legs waiting for the inevitable train wreck. Actually turned out OK for the mutt, as it didn't seem to get tossed about too bad, and only Ivan Basso (Liquigas) and David Millar actually exited their seats to gentle landings.

 As per usual, the hares up front slowly got pulled back by the pack, but good old Maarten Wynants decided he hadn't had enough punishment for one day and, arriving at a broken section of cobble with around 30 or so kms to go, scurried off with dreams of grandeur in his head whilst the remaining two (Lars Boom (Rabobank) and Alan Perez (Euskaltel-Euskadi)) called it a day with more practical dreams of hot showers and food sometime in their near future.

Alexander Pliuschin (Katusha), the current champ of Moldova, decided to get his team some air time and his country some fame (not surprisingly - where the fuck is Moldova?) and scooted after Wynants with a view to forming a two man cruise missile all the way to the finish. Unfortunately, when he got up to Maarten, he found a rider very much in cruise mode (not doubt pretty much stuffed after being at the pointy end all day) and ended up pulling him along until their capture about 7kms from the finish. Still, he got his fame and a good workout for 23 or so kms!

From then on, the big-name sprinter's teams jostled and bustled for position at high speeds until a sharp right hand bend at around 2.5km delivered a blow to HTC-Columbia, with Mark Cavendish forgetting how to steer a bike around a corner, leaning into someone else thus creating the conditions for the crash and being dumped on his arse (wow - that'd be new to him - NOT!) along with a couple of others, Oscar Freire of Rabobank included.

That was just the start of the chaos. Following an extremely busy and hectic lead-out-swapping pelt into the 800 metre mark, a massive crash corked up the entire peloton bar the 25-30 front riders. Whilst the hung-up bunch watched on in non-participatory gloom, the left overs fought out the finish, with Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-Farnese Vini) again doing a magic act avoiding the carnage and running out to a strong win over Mark Renshaw of HTC-Columbia (clearly confused because Cavendish wasn't behind him sucking up his air) and 'God of Thunder' Thor Hushovd (Cervelo Test Team).  Poor old Tyler Farrar, in a good position with support at 300 metres to go, got rear-ended and ended up dragging a bike (hooked on his RD) 100 metres down the road before he hopped off, disentangled it, flung it ceremoniously into the side barrier and trundled into the finish. Tragi-comic is the expression I think.

So, in the shake-up, no shake-up from the Prologue, with Spartacus still in the maillot jaune, followed by Martin, Millar, the Uni-Baller, Thomas and Contadorrrrrrrrrr.

So, a fun first stage, with plenty of suffering in more ways than one - Wynants went on to win the 'Most Combative' award (although someone should remind him there is actually a few kms to still traverse in the race!) - some douche-baggery, some lovely scenery, and a standout cameo by a kamikaze dog. Bravo Belgian Mutt!

Ride Safe!