Saturday's 8.9 kilometer Prologue time trail in Rotterdam produced a fairly conventional result, though time trials are rarely boring. Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) happily put on the yellow jersey with the quickest time of the day. No surprise there, seeing the world and Olympic time trial champion winning a short prologue. Lance Armstrong (Radio Shack) was sitting in fourth place, with chief general classification (GC) rival Alberto Contador (Astana) sitting in sixth. Last year's second-place GC finisher, Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank), finished a disappointing 122nd, nearly three-quarters of a minute behind Armstrong and Contador. Those three riders are considered the heavy favorites coming in.
Stage 1 was a relatively flat ride from Rotterdam to Brussels. A day, as they say, for the sprinters. But crashes in the final two kilometers, one on a 100-degree right-hand turn that knocked stage favorite Mark Cavendish (HTC Columbia) and Oscar Freire (Rabobank) to the deck, followed by a massive crash taking down several riders spread out across the narrow finishing stretch and stopping cyclists behind them. Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre) took the win, but Cancellara remained in yellow.
Things turned violent in Stage 2 on a rainy Monday through the narrow roads of Belgium from Brussels to Spa. The stage finished with a series of low-level climbs. With the rain falling, the roads got slippery. On the descent from the Col de Stockeu, one of the riders that got popped from the breakout group, went down on the slick surface. A race motorcycle, which was leading the peloton, tried to avoid the downed rider and ended up spilling motor oil on the road surface, leading to a treacherous descent for the peloton. Several cyclists wiped out, with a few big names picking themselves off the road. With the peloton in shreds and bereft of organization, breakout rider Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step) was able to build on his lead and race home with the victory and overtake Cancellara for the yellow jersey.
Because the carnage of Stockeu affected all the teams in the race, the riders that managed to avoid crashing, as a group and led by Cancellara, negotiated a gentleman's agreement not to take advantage of the crashes and allow those fallen cyclists to regroup and catch up. This was a move that we admire Cancellara for, as it effectively took him out of the yellow jersey. Furthermore, it was decided that none of the peloton would challenge at the finish line for second place to gain points in the sprint competition (the green jersey). Race officials, at the behest of Cancellara, decided to neutralize the results for those in the peloton finishing behind Chavanel, eliminating any incentive to sprint for points. This decision did not sit well with Thor Hushovd (Cervelo), who felt he had the form to overtake the lead in the green-jersey competition. The fallout from Stockeu was mostly scrapes, but GC-contender Christian
Vande Velde (Garmin-Transitions) broke three ribs and had to pull out from the race. Tuesday's Stage 3 was the introduction of cobblestones, with several sections of it in the final 30 kilometers, leading into Arenberg in the north of France. This was the day that organizers planned to produce the most excitement and potential for selection among the riders. But now, coming off the damage of Stage 2, the Hell of the North made the riders much more nervous entering the third stage. The cobbles didn't disappoint. Several riders punctured tires and lost time on the road in, including Armstrong and Chavanel. Additionally, crashes on the cobbles and on paved surface slowed other GC contenders, such as Contador. Those that rode the front of the peloton and were lucky enough to keep their machines intact, benefitted the most on the day. That means Cadel Evans (BMC) and Andy Schleck were able to erase time deficits from the Prologue time trial. It also means Cancellara was able to regain the yellow jersey from Chavanel, who needed to change his bike twice on the cobbles. Though it was not all good news for Saxo Bank, as they lost Andy's brother, Frank Schleck, to a broken collar bone on the cobbles. Lastly, it was a day of vindication for Hushovd, who rode with the leaders and took the stage win and the green jersey.
Wednesday's Stage 4 is another flat stage and will be a good recovery day. It's only 95 miles and will take the riders into Reims, the capital of the Champagne region of France. This will be the first real boring stage, as the riders will look to keep it safe and without injury.