In what as a captivating Stage 1 of the 99th edition of Le Tour de France, 22 year old Slovakian, Peter Sagan recorded his first stage victory at the Tour.
The 198km stage resulted in an epic sprint to the line, where the Slovak rider edged out yellow jersey holder Fabian Cancellara, and Norwegian rider Edvald Boasson Hagen respectively.
At about 20km from the finish, the peloton turned up the heat on the six man breakaway group as almost all the teams were fighting for positions at the front of the peloton in order to decrease their chances of being involved in a crash, as well as setting themselves up for the stage win.
The infighting of the peloton proved to fateful for some, with two crashes occurring in the closing kilometres of the stage, including a crash that came about because of a cameraman being too close to the main riders.
New Australian team, GreenEDGE looked to be in a perfect position with 2km to go where its train of riders was working extremely well at the front of the peloton.
However, their hard work was undone when the man known as, ‘Spartacus’, Fabian Cancellara turned out a vicious attack a third of the way up the 2.4km ascent to the finish with only Liquigas rider, Peter Sagan able to keep up.
However, Edvald Boassan Hagen of Team Sky soon bridged the gap and with 500m to go the trio where well clear of the main field. In the end, Sagan sprinted away to the victory, with the main field not losing any time to the three stage placegetters.
Sagan couldn’t have timed his sprint better, and his cleverness to sit on Cancellara’s wheel and let him do all of the work until the very last moment, showed the poise and class of a Tour veteran; yet the 22 year old is in his debut year.
Before the stage Sagan was put under immense pressure; with many experts predicting that the Liquigas rider would come through with the stage victory.
The fact that Sagan did not crack under pressure deserves huge credit; this calmness and ability to think under pressure will hold the Slovakian road race champion in great stead, for the rest of his career.
Tomorrow’s stage is a 207.5km journey from Vise to Tournai. The stage is likely to end in a bunch sprint which unlike stage 1, does not finish in an ascent to the line.
A breakaway is highly unlikely to survive and because of the flat finish expect the likes of Australia’s Matt Goss, Team Sky’s Mark Cavendish as well as Omega Pharma Lotto sprinter, Andre Greipel to be strong contenders for the stage win.
Stage 1 provided us with some drama, excitement and great riding. Let’s hope Stage 2 can provide us with a similar dose of awesome, cycling action.
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