Click here to watch footage of the first stage pile-up
The Belgian champion Philippe Gilbert had been tipped to win the opening stage of the Tour de France on the Mont des Alouettes in the Vendée region and he delivered with characteristic strength on the climb to the finish line.
But behind him lay a trail of chaos and confusion that left race officials struggling to sort out the overall standings. There were two crashes in the closing 10km of what had been an uneventful journey from the Atlantic coast.
When it was all sorted out, the results made grim reading for the defending champion, Alberto Contador, who lost 1min 14sec to his biggest rival, Andy Schleck, after being caught behind the first crash.
For the second time in four years, the Tour de France organisers decided to forgo the traditional prologue time trial, which at least would sort the peloton into some sort of order, open time gaps and generally calm nerves a little before the first big bunch sprint.
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At the start, the peloton rode across the Passage du Gois, a slick, slippery causeway between the Ile de Noirmoutier and the mainland. Because of the risk of a crash, the race was neutralised until they had crossed the sea road. As soon as the signal was given to open hostilities, Perrig Quemeneur, a French rider with the Europcar team, attacked. He was joined immediately by Jérémy Roy, another Frenchman, riding for FDJ, and Lieuwe Westra, a Dutchman with Vacansoleil. They spent the bulk of the day in the lead, with the peloton showing little interest in doing anything other than ensuring the trio’s advantage did not grow to an unmanageable size. The maximum gap was six minutes, which was eventually reduced to four.
With 19km to go, the leaders were caught. Their advantage had been whittled down as Gilbert’s Omega Pharma team applied the pressure. The battle for position now entered its crucial phase. With a 2km climb to the finish, anybody hoping for a stage win and the yellow jersey wanted to be at the front. For that reason, the bunch spread across the full width of the road and with 9.3km to go the inevitable happened. There was a crash.
A rider with the Astana team caught the shoulder of a yellow-shirted spectator standing on the right edge of the road and was thrown towards the middle of the bunch. A dozen or so went down with him, others were sent on to the grass verge and the crash blocked many more.
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Gilbert’s teammates and the Europcar riders, hoping to set up Thomas Voeckler for the finish, kept the pressure on. Contador was caught out of position and was resigned to a race to limit his losses to Schleck and his other main rivals. However, the drama was not over. With about 2.5km to go there was another crash, this time in the front group. Bradley Wiggins of Team Sky and Schleck were both caught up in it. The rules, though, state that any rider who crashes or is delayed by a crash in the final 3km of a stage is credited with the same time as the group he was with at the time of the incident.
On the final climb there were only 30 riders in the hunt for the stage win. Fabian Cancellara, the Swiss rider who has won the opening time trial in 2004, 2007, 2009 and last year, tried to get his hands on the yellow jersey by attacking 600m out but ran out of steam well before the finish.
That played into the hands of Gilbert, who is relishing an incredible streak. He won four of the spring Classics in a row — three of which featured uphill finishes harder than yesterday’s — and has extended his run in the early part of the summer.
He will start today’s 23km team time trial in Les Essarts with a three-second advantage over the Australian Cadel Evans of BMC Racing, who was second on the stage. Thor Hushovd, the world champion, was third.
Welshman Geraint Thomas was sixth and took the white jersey as leader of the best young rider competition.
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Contador crossed the line 1min 20sec after the winner, in the same group as Schleck with Wiggins nine seconds behind. However, because of that crash rule, Contador’s time was not adjusted. Wiggins and Schleck, who fell in the second crash, found their spill was far less costly.