Philippe Gilbert slips on this jersey after the First Stage of the 2011 Tour de France. The most surprising of the first stage was the amount of crashes that happened especially in the last leg of the course. There were several crashes under 5km to go. Although the first stage is only the beginning of a long journey around France, injuries from crashes can impose a long ride for some and you really don't want to fall too far back. As usual there was an early break who actually held the Peleton to 4 minutes, including only 3 riders, Jeremy Roy, Perrig Quemeneur, and Lieuwe Westra who stayed out front until about 19km to go. The Peleton was led by Omega Pharma who pulled the breakaway back in once they felt the finish was getting too close. Christopher Horner is showing that he will be there being the top finishing American in the race, who also was the top finisher last year, sitting only 6 seconds back in 9th place. He is definitely the one to watch and seems as most likely the one to carry the American banner this year and has shown that he can make a good attempt at leading the general classification. Levi Leipheimer who can also challenge for the maillot jaune is only 1 minute and 20 seconds back, and we all know George Hincapie who sits right under 2 minutes back. Tyler Farrar who was thought to be a dark horse in this race led the peleton a couple times, but did not finish in the top 100 by the end of the first stage. Cadel Evans who is always a good strong rider finished right behind Gilbert and is 2nd in the overall classification. Last years winner and of course this years favorite Alberto Contador is 1 minute and 21 seconds behind Gilbert, who will go into tomorrows Stage 2, which is a Team Trial Stage with the Yellow Jersey. If Omega Pharma maintains the strength that they showed today, it should be quite an interesting team trial tomorrow. With several strong teams out there. What an exciting Grand Start!
No comments:
Post a Comment