91st Tour de France Stage 1 - July 4: Liège-Charleroi, 202.5 km

91st Tour de France - July 3-25, 2004

Jaan jams 'em in Charleroi
Cancellara maintains Maillot Jaune

By Tim Maloney, European Editor in Charleroi
Jaan Kirsipuu strikes first

Photo ©: Sirotti

Despite the fact that it's only two weeks until his thirty-fifth birthday, Ag2r's Estonian Express Jaan Kirsipuu is still one powerful sprinter. On a wet, blustery day with a strong headwind that was more reminiscent of the spring classics season than early July, Kirsipuu took the winners bouquet in a long power sprint today in Stage One in Charleroi. Coming off a superb leadout by Ag2r's other sprinter Jean-Patrick Nazon, then Norwegian powerhouse Thor Hushovd (Credit Agricole), Kirsipuu kicked it home to win a typically turbulent, tumultuous sprint, his fourth career stage win in the Grande Boucle.

"Up until the Tour de France, I wasn't really in good condition and I did a very bad prologue yesterday. But today at the halfway point in the stage, I started feeling better and when I saw that I was going well in the intermediate sprints, I got some more confidence," explained Kirsipuu.

"There was no decision before which if (Nazon) or me would be the main sprinter today. At 30km from the finish, we talked. I told him I had good legs today and he said he wasn't super... so I was lucky to get on Hushovd's wheel with 400 metres to go."

Speaking of his tight finish with Australian sprinter Robbie McEwen, Kirsipuu smiled and said "I was afraid he might have passed me but when I looked over to my left and saw him, I saw he wasn't too happy and realized I had won."

Sprinting in for third in his Norwegian champion's jersey, Viking-like Thor Hushovd grabbed 8" second time bonus and closed the gap on Maillot Jaune Fabian Cancellara to just 4". The Swiss Fassa Bortolo rider and his team battled the wind, rain and competition to hang on to the precious yellow tunic.

"It's nice to keep the jersey today, but I have to give a big thank you to my team," Cancellara commented. "I couldn't have done it without them."
Cipollini down but not out

Photo ©: Olympia

The expected Petacchi-Cipollini sprinter showdown didn't materialize today, as Petacchi's Fassa Bortolo's team may have done too much work early on defending Fabian Cancellara's Maillot Jaune.

"I probably started my sprint too soon and came out in the wind where I lost my momentum," explained Petacchi post-stage. "Today was a very tactical sprint. Still, I'm disappointed (with 8th place) because I wanted to win today."

Mario Cipollini crashed early today on his left thigh, the same one he injured in the Giro d'Italia in May. Although he didn't hurt himself badly, Cipollini still had some pain and simply didn't feel great today, finishing 38th.

Lance Armstrong gave up his Maillot Vert to Hushovd and clearly Stage One wasn't to the five time Tour de France champion's liking. "As it always at the beginning of the Tour, today was a very nervous day…lots of crashes, lots of wind. Nobody likes racing in these kind of conditions."

But Armstrong's USPS-Berry Floor team stayed close to the boss all day and maintained their lead in the Tour team GC. Instigator of the day's major break, Paolo Bettini (Quick.Step-Davitamon) took three KOM's and scored points in all of them today to take the Tour's first Maillot Pois for best climber.
Bettini sees spots

Photo ©: Sirotti

"This was our first objective in the Tour so I'm happy we could achieve it," Bettini said. "But I think this jersey is really for my teammate (Richard) Virenque."

Another black day for the Aussies today at the Tour de France, with Robbie McEwen losing the stage by a half-wheel and Stuart O'Grady (Cofidis) crashing with 4km to go and not scoring any points for his Maillot Vert quest. Then there was back trouble for Brad McGee.

"My back is rough... I couldn't feel my legs today, I couldn't get any power out of them. I hurt it last weekend and it's been on and off ever since," explained McGee post-stage.

Brad and his teammate Matt Wilson finished six minutes behind, while Lotto-Domo man Nick Gates had it worst of all; finishing last on the stage 30'38" down after hitting his knee hard on his bars after a seemingly minor crash with 90km to go forced him to chase alone all the way to Charleroi. Unfortunately, Gates was six minutes outside the time limit today and was eliminated from the Tour.

How it unfolded

Wet day in Belgium

Photo ©: Olympia

Lance Armstrong started today's Stage One wearing the Maillot Vert, the first time the American has donned the green tunic since 2000, when he was runner-up to David Millar in the Futuroscope TT. Early on, five riders attacked and got away across the Ardennes climbs in the first half of the stage. With three Cat.4 and one Cat. 3 climbs in the first half of the stage, the KOM's would determine the wearer of the first polka-dot jersey in Charleroi this afternoon. In the break were Jens Voigt (CSC), Paolo Bettini (Quick.Step-Davitamon), Janek Tombak (Cofidis), Bernhard Eisel (FDJeux.com) and Franck Renier (Brioches La Boulangère).

The front quintet was flying and after 55km their lead had increased over the Fassa Bortolo led peloton to 3'45". Bettini was raging today and the pocket powerhouse from Italy won three of the five KOM's to take the lead in the climber's competition. By the feed zone in Rendeux, a light rain had began to fall and domestiques began to shuttle back and forth with rain gear from the team cars. The gap to the front group was now three minutes.

The slick roads began to cause occasional problems for the break as Voigt and Renier missed a turn on the descent of the Cote de Borlon, and then Eisel touched wheels while he was talking to his team car and fell hard on his rear end, but got back up quickly and chased the break down again with nothing damaged but his pride.
The Fassa Bortolo gang

Photo ©: Sirotti

Behind the break, Fassa was pounding hard on the front through the streets of Huy, where the Fleche Wallonne is run every April. The break's lead began to diminish quickly and went under 30" in Modave with 88km to race at the first intermediate sprint, won by Eisel. The Silver Train was steaming away and their hard pace had split the peloton, with a 30 man group up front and then the rest of the riders, including most of the Euskaltel team, Mario Cipollini and McGee in a chase group 10" behind the main group.

Under the impulsion of Euskaltel, the second group came back to the front group just as O'Grady (Cofidis) punctured, but his Cofidis team waited for him and he got back on after a 10km chase. Meanwhile, the break was finally caught 1km the second intermediate sprint in Wanze with 70km to go after 116km of liberty. Fassa Bortolo rode right by to try and set up Cancellara for the time bonus, but Hushovd got by him to take the 6" bonus, thus closing the gap on the Swiss rider by 2".

The rain finally stopped and the strong headwinds quickly dried the roads off as Kim Kirchen (Fassa Bortolo) powered away on the front with his Luxembourg champion's jersey and kept any attacks from succeeding. At the third and final intermediate sprint in Eghezée, O'Grady took the sprint from Cancellara and Boonen, with the Maillot Jaune regaining time he lost in the first sprint.

Marc Wauters (Rabobank) and Jakob Piil (CSC) then made a classic counter attack with 50km to go and quickly gained time on the peloton. Both riders are powerful rouleurs and across the plains of the Province of Namur and through small towns like Fleurus and Jemappes, the duo gained time despite the headwind.

With 25km to race, the dynamic duo had 1'45" on the Fassa-led peloton and the Silver Train didn't seem that motivated to chase alone so the pace wasn't sustained until Crédit Agricole and Lotto-Domo joined in the effort behind the Belgian/Danish duo. With 20km to go, McGee dropped off the back and along with his FDJeux.com teammate, Australian champion Matt Wilson, finished the long, painful journey to Charleroi.

Up front, the powerful combo of Wauters and Piil went all out and increased their lead to 1'45" with 30km to go, but the sprinters' teams got out their calculators and managed to hold off the real chase until the final 1.6km, when the break were absorbed by the peloton.

Julian Dean (Credit Agricole) led out his teammate Hushovd perfectly, but the power and experience of Kirsipuu paid off in the final meters for the stage win.

Stage 2 - July 5: Charleroi-Namur, 197km

Stage Two loops south from Charleroi into France for 50km then heads back into Belgium for a finish at Namur, which welcomed the Tour for the last time in 1959 where 1967 Tour winner Roger Pingeon took the winner's bouquet. Back in Belgium, the Tour heads through Mons, a city that the race has never visited and back along the Meuse River for a finish in Namur in front of the famous Citadelle. With a turn at 200m to go on Boulevard Cauchy, it may be a better sprint for McEwen than Petacchi or Cipollini on Monday.