Tour de France 2006 Stage 1

Today was the first official day of racing in this year’s Tour de France - Stage 1. Yesterday was the prologue which basically gives them a back to hang the yellow jersey on.

Today’s ride was a 184.5 km ride in the park from Strasbourg to Strasbourg. I’m not sure why Strasbourg got to host two stages of the tour this year. Apparently they have a better PR department than many of the other French cities. Additionally I probably shouldn’t refer to a 184.5 km ride as a ride in the park. I could probably ride 184.5 km if I had to. Of course it would take me several days and I'd need motel reservations along the way. But if I had to ride at the same pace as the tour riders race, I would be lucky to get from the grand depart to the starting line before my heart would explode.

Today’s race had one small category climb that Bob Roll the OLN commentator described as a freeway overpass.

The main excitement of the day happened at the 175.5 km sprint and at the finish line. At the last sprint of the day, George Hincapie sprinted out of the peloton and grabbed the 2 second time bonus for third place in the sprint. This was a brilliant move on George’s part, since he was in a dead heat with Thor Hushovd for the yellow jersey. Eventually those two seconds put George Hincapie in the yellow jersey at the end of the day.

The other bit of excitement came at the finish line. Thor Hushovd the current yellow jersey holder was in the final sprint to the line when he was struck by a large green cardboard hand that one of the tour advertisers had passed out to spectators to wave. This harmless souvenir sliced Hushovd’s right elbow open and ruptured a vein in his arm. Hushovd finished the race with blood rapidly covering his entire right arm. He was eventually taken to the hospital where is arm was stitched up. Hushovd says that he is not sure if he will be able to grip the handlebars as needed in order to sprint for a day or so but he intends to continue racing and see how he fairs in the next few days. You gotta love those tough Norwegians.

So how are our Americans cyclists doing after today’s stage?

Pos.  No.  Name              Nat.   Team  Gap
1   003  HINCAPIE, George    USA    DSC  00:00:00.000
3   018  ZABRISKIE, David    USA    CSC  00:00:06.000
9   071  LANDIS, Floyd       USA    PHO  00:00:11.000
20  064  HORNER, Christopher USA    DVL  00:00:17.000
31  011  JULICH, Bobby       USA    CSC  00:00:20.000
36  016  VANDEVELDE, Christian USA  CSC  00:00:23.000
38  041  LEIPHEIMER, Levi    USA    GST  00:00:23.000
114 066  RODRIGUEZ, Fred     USA    DVL  00:00:40.000

George Hincapie in Yellow and two other riders in the top 10 - wonderful.