Petacchi wins crash-marred 1st stage of Tour; Armstrong other contenders trail in pack

Petacchi wins 1st stage of Tour de France

BRUSSELS, Belgium — Alessandro Petacchi of Italy won Sunday’s crash-marred first stage of the Tour de France, with top sprint rivals and overall contenders such as Lance Armstrong delayed by the spills.

Three crashes tangled up riders in the last few miles, including a big crash within the last half-mile that stalled race leader Fabian Cancellara and Armstrong amid a large bunch.

The top of the standings didn’t change: Cancellara, the Swiss who won Saturday’s prologue, retained the yellow jersey and seven-time Tour champion Armstrong remains fourth, 22 seconds back.

Alberto Contador, the 2009 champion, was sixth, 27 seconds behind, following the 139-mile trek through flat Belgian and Dutch lowlands from Rotterdam to Brussels.

Armstrong didn’t go down in the crashes, but Cancellara did.

“It was really nervous today, and at the end it was just insane,” Cancellara said. “At the end, I couldn’t do anything. I was also in the chaos. I hit the ground pretty hard. … Tomorrow I will feel the asphalt that I found at the end.”

Britain’s Mark Cavendish, a sprinter who won six Tour stages last year, and Oscar Freire of Spain, crashed while negotiating a sharp turn in the last few miles.

Then, in the last 1,000 yards, a massive pileup left Lampre rider Petacchi a relatively easy sprint to victory ahead of the approximately 20 riders who were able to avoid the spill.

Petacchi clocked 5 hours, 9 minutes, 38 seconds for the stage, screaming and thrusting his index fingers into the air as he crossed the finish. The 36-year-old Italian is riding his first Tour since 2004 — a year after he collected four stage victories.

Britain’s David Millar and Giro d’Italia winner Ivan Basso crashed after a dog darted into the peloton around the 35-mile mark — before getting up and returning to the race.

Cavendish was without the services of one of his top lead-out men: HTC-Columbia teammate Adam Hansen of Australia fell in an early crash. Team officials said it wasn’t immediately clear what happened, but they suspected a broken left collarbone and said he’d go directly to the hospital after the stage.

Moldavian champion Alexandr Pliuschin burst out of the pack with about 15 miles left to catch three breakaway riders who had jumped out very early. He and Belgium’s Martin Wynants held off the main bunch until being over taken with just over six miles to go.

Riders embark on another mostly flat ride in Monday’s second stage, a 125-mile jaunt from Brussels to Spa.