[Le Tour 2003]Stage 1 - Leaving Paris

[Tour Reporter]

Stage 1 - Saint-Denis/Montegeron - Meaux - 168 km

The first road stage begins with nearly 20 km of neutralized racing, 
first out of Paris and then away from the Cafe Revel Matin with all the 
inherent hoopla that the French can muster.

Lotto's Robbie Mcewan nabs some sprint points at the first spot. It 
seems as though he's not interested in repeatint the final day nailbiter 
of last year in his quest for the green Points Leader Jersey.

Siezing the momentum, a breakaway moved clear and continues away from 
the bunch, edging their gap up to a maximum of 8:45.  Sprinters teams 
begin unlimbering their legs, brains and racing behavior, now takig 
about a minute back with 83 km to go.  The three riders are 97 - 
Christophe Mengin from FDJeux.com, 155 - Andy Flickinger from 
Ag2R-Prevoyance and 182 - Walter Beneteau from Brioches La Boulangere. 
If you've noticed that all of those teams are French-based squads, you 
get extra points.

Fairly narrow roads under the overcast skies and threatening sunshine. 
The gap to the leaders slips under the 7 minute mark as the breakaway 
trio crests the single hill on the day.

Four other Cofidis riders had drivetrain woes yesterday, as it seems 
that they decided to run single chainrings in the Prologue Time Trial, 
removing the front derailleur.  Those four riders all had trouble 
keeping the chain on as they bumped over the cobbles on the roads of 
Paris.

Up front, Credit Agrcole, Lotto and Fassa Bortolo trade pulls as the 
lead continues to reduce.  Muted colors and lowering haze sit on the 
near horizon to the peleton while the breakaway riders find themselves 
suddenly in full sun.  With about 60-odd km to go, the lead has been 
squeezed down to 5 minutes.  The cameras find the USPostal squad neatly 
positioned near the front of the pack, paced by the oldest man in the 
race, Vlatchislav Ekimov, who is riding his 13th Tour this year.

Current race leader Bradley McGee is only the third Australian to wear 
the yellow jersey, folling in the footsteps of Phil Anderson and Stuart 
O'Grady.

An OLN spot has two pro bass fishermen rolling along a bike path, 
compaining vaguely how their shows have been preempted. They wobble 
uneasily as they attempt to hit their lines and keep their machines 
pointed straight.  I wonder how many takes that took....

The Lotto/Fassa Bortolo/Credit Agricole combine leads the group over 
widening and straightening roadways.  The gap continues to drop, now 
under 4 minutes with over 50 km to go.  195 riders grind up the miles, 
and within a few minutes, their gap has been nearly halved.  It holds 
and hovers a bit, as the riders have determined that they will be able 
to snag the break when they need to.  They let the ONCE squad push up to 
the point of the bunch and take over a bit of pacemaking.

Up at the front, Flickinger punches it at the final sprint point, easily 
gapping his breakawy companions, which gains him a six second time 
bonus.  If for some reason they manage to stay away, it could mean a 
yellow jersey on his shoulders.  I'm not sure I'd bet on that, of 
course. The bunch is griding up the streets of the town of Mauperthuis - 
a much steeper climb than is generally the case in a sprint point - and 
seem to have decided that enough is enough with just over 20 miles to go.

Under the 20 km to go banner, Magnin and Beneteau finally fold up their 
tents as Flickinger guns the throttle and moves away.  He has less than 
a minute over the bunch.

Flickinger presses on valiantly as he heads under the 15 km to go.  The 
peleton rumbles through the checkpoint and continue to reduce the gap.

At the back of the group, Erik Zabel finds himself awaiting the team car 
with a mechanical of some sort.  He has three teammates immediately 
dropping back, and he pushes himself back up through the team cars.  Not 
the sort of bother you need with under 10 km to go - particulary if you 
are the team sprinter.  Teammate Daniele Nardello takes up the bit and 
drives the pace, quickly regaining the back end of the bunch.  At the 
other end of events, Fassa Bortolo drives things along into the 
narrowing streets of town, Credit Agricole's Christophe Moreau drives 
the pace with under 6 km to go - Paolo Bettini - currently the number 1 
ranked professional cyclist on points - pushes into the mix, while the 
Vini Caldirola squad has placed themselves firmly near the front as well.

It's a United Nations of national colors, as Zabel in the German 
national championship jersey, Stuart O'grady moves up in the Australian 
colors, and Bettini waves the Italian flag.

Hellish repitions of traffic "furniture" divide the squads again and 
again as they hit the outskirts of town. They head slightly downhill and 
speed edges up again.

Moreau fades and Cofidis moves their way up. They cannot keep control, 
while Telekom's Mathias Kessler guides the efforts of Zabel.  But with a 
bit of shuffling as they head around a corner, Zabel loses the wheel and 
drops back a bit.  They now head into a hard right turn and a straight 
stretch along the waterway.  Vini Caldirola strongman Eddie Mazzoleni 
drives the pace with a number of FDJeux.com riders.  They pass under the 
2 km to go banner.

O'Grady moves up unprotected on the right of the peleton, trying 
desperately to tuck in behind a wheel.  McEwen sits in the top ten,  but 
deep in the bunch.  It's a chaos of crazed riders, all of whom want to 
be at the front.  The first road stage of the the Tour de France is a 
frightening place right now.

Petacchi's Fassa Bortolo team regains control and leads under the red 
kite which marks the 1 km to go banner - they come up a slight rise with 
three riders on the front as the speed continues to increase. A bit of a 
dogleg finish lies before them - first a right and then a left. Others 
begin to move up

- CRASH in the squad -

Just about 15 or 20 riders back.  Guiterrez from Kelme pops a foot out 
of the pedal and has immediately gone down, bike   bouncing away.  This 
all occurs just after the turn, and riders begin to pile in, tumbling 
over one another in a spreading wave of chaos and carnage.

A select group of serious sprinters are still clear off the front, South 
African Rabobank rider Robbie Hunter moves hard, with McEwen and Zabel 
tucked in Petacchi's slipstream.  Petacchi sees the line and kicks it 
into high gear.  Hunter and the others drop away, while McEwen moves out 
  hard and claws his way up.  On Petacchi's other shoulder, the wiley 
Zabel moves out and lights the afterburner. Around him Paolo Bettini 
brings the Italian National Champions jersey toward the line - but it's 
all too little horsepower as Petacchi will not be passed - he takes the 
stage victory, arms aloft!

Back down the roadway, the entire pelton is at a standstill - riders 
went down damned hard - replays showing at least two absolutely 
unprotected endos - lots of USPostal riders bunch together, but, it's 
unclear if any were caught in the actual bloodletting.  It's tough to 
see how much damage has been done, but the cameras pick up FDJeux.com 
rider Jimmy Caspar flat on his back, already in a neck brace.  Hopefully 
it's more precautionary than anything.

Riders riders filter in as warriors returning from a horrific battle, 
one or two paired up - Yellow Jersey wearing Bradley McGee is pushed by 
a teammate.  Another rider walks his bike down the last few hundred 
meters - back wheel mangled and unrideable. It happens so damned fast - 
suddenly the speed and color of the group reduced to nothing more than a 
bunch of solitary riders coasting toward the finish. As this crash 
occurred in the final kilometer, all riders will receive the same time 
for today's stage, and there will be no change in the overall standings, 
other then the sprint jersey falling upon the shoulders of a very fast 
Aussie.

Well, there was finish, and it looked like Petacchi, McEwen, Zabel, 
Bettini within a wheel of each other, in that order. The chaos  of the 
finish seems to be preventing French television from posting official 
results, so I'll have to dig around for a minute or two to find out if 
they are available.
	
The podium awards proceed, with McGee getting another yellow jersey, 
while McEwen pulls on his first green jersey in his quest for the 
overall points jersey.

The best provisional results I've found so far:

1 - Alessandro Petacchi - Fassa Bortolo, 3:44:33
2 - Robbie Mc Ewen - Lotto-Domo, at 00:00
3 - Erik Zabel - Telekom, at 00:00
4 - Paolo Bettini - Quick Step-Davitamon, at 00:00
5 - Baden Cooke - FDJeux.com, at 00:00
6 - Thor Hushovd - Credit Agricole, at 00:00
7 - Oscar Freire - Rabobank, at 00:00
8 - Luca Paolini - Quick Step-Davitamon, at 00:00
9 - Romans Vainsteins - Vini-Caldirola, at 00:00
10 - Jaan Kirsipuu - Ag2R Prevoyance, at 00:00



Tomorrows Stage:
Stage 2 - La Ferte-sous-Jouarre - Sedan - 204 km
Basically a rolling stage with a couple of nipping hills - the final 30 
km follow a category 4 climb (one of two on the day), and ease down on a 
descent to the finish.

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