Winners
Andre Greipel
The big German did well to stay out of the carnage behind as an increasingly slick Lotto-Belisol lead-out train kept him well out of trouble. The Gorilla, who looked like the only rider capable of challenging Mark Cavendish on stage 2, ended up winning comfortably ahead of Alessandro Petacchi and Tom Veelers, who put in another impressive ride.
Jonathan Cantwell
The Australian sprinter, racing in his first grand tour will no doubt be very happy with 6th place. Keeping his head when all around him were losing theirs, the Saxo Bank rider stayed ahead of the crash in a manner which many other grand tour debutants would have been unable to do.
Europcar
The French team seem to be approaching the Tour in much the same way that FDJ did last year. Four road stages and four breakaways, you will expect that Jean-René Bernaudeau will be very happy with his team performances so far given Voeckler’s injury problems.
Losers
Mark Cavendish
The odds on favourite for the stage win found himself on the ground following a big crash (thankfully for the GC riders coming just inside the 3km banner) which also took down teammate Bernie Eisel and Garmin-Sharp’s Robbie Hunter. After easing to the intermediate sprint, Cavendish looked fairly dejected as he spun to the line contemplating what could have been.
The Riding Wounded
Luis-Leon Sanchez, Tony Martin, and Tommy Danielson would all have come to the Tour with either hopes of a stage win or a decent position in GC. However, the victims of crashes on the first two stages are left to using the Tour as a training ride for the Olympics, definitely not what they were opening for.
Student Cyclist 