Tour de France Stage 1: Winners and Losers

Winners

Peter Sagan
As soon as Sagan jumped on Cancellara’s wheel with 1.5km to go, you had a feeling that the result of the stage was inevitable. The Slovak refused to help the yellow jersey in a move reminiscent to Gerrans’ and Nibali’s tactics in Milan-San Remo before powering away with 150 metres to go. Tomorrow will be a very different test and it will be interesting to see if Sagan can keep up his 100% record in Tour de France road stages.

Robert Gesink
The highest place of the overall contenders, Gesink will be very pleased with 7th place, especially as key domestique Bauke Mollema was also 5th. Although the high mountains have been the Dutchman’s downfall in previous Tours, this could be an early show of some decent form.

Pierre Rolland
Along with Evans, it was the young Frenchman who led the chase of the three escapees in the final 1500m. Although he was rapidly eaten up once the sprint opened up, it was a good sign from the man who may have to take up the Europcar leadership should Voeckler’s knee injury have thwarted his preparation.

Michael Rogers
Not so much a winner, but the Australian, who may be eyeing up a top 10 in GC alongside super-domestique duty with Wiggins, will be pleased to have made it back up to the front group after being caught in a crash with just over 20km to go.

Losers

Chris Froome

The Kenyan-born Brit would no doubt be a much more talked about contender for the yellow jersey were he not on the same team as Bradley Wiggins, but a puncture with 15km to go meant a loss of almost a minute and a half. However, the way he drove to the line suggest that he is looking to stay in contention should Wiggins falter.

Levi Leipheimer

The Omega Pharma-Quicktep team leader, tipped as an outsider for the podium, paid for poor positioning at the bottom of the finishing climb to lose 17 seconds. The American has struggled with positioning in frenetic finishes in the past and it may cost him again.

Luis Leon Sanchez

Another victim of the crash that brought down Rogers, Sanchez stayed down for much longer before remounting. The finish today could have suited him, but the Spaniard will have to wait, but possibly only as long as the tough finale into Boulogne on stage 3.

Orica-Greenedge

A lot of work on the final climb came to nothing as Simon Gerrans could only manage 13th. Albasini and O’Grady rode themselves to a standstill, but they will look to regroup in support of Matt Goss tomorrow.