Cycling/Tour de France first stage results: Yesterday should have been all about happy memories as the Tour returned to the Reveil-Matin bar where the first grande boucle started 100 years ago, writes William Fotheringham in Meaux.
But Lance Armstrong will not recall the events of the weekend with any affection, even if he eventually does join the race's record-holders with a fifth consecutive victory.
On Saturday the Texan paid a small but still annoying price for what looked like rare complacency. He decided not to reconnoitre the course of the prologue time-trial and thus lost a surprising five seconds to Jan Ullrich and failed to open ground on any of his likely rivals.
Yesterday, meanwhile, he hit the deck for the second time in a month, in probably the largest sprint crash the Tour has seen. Armstrong was lying about 25th as the tightly-packed peloton jostled for the finish, with the wind on their backs driving them at about 40mph through a right-hand-left-hand chicane 700 metres from the line. The Spaniard Jose-Enrique Gutierrez lost his balance as the rider in front of him changed line and fell, taking about 20 of his fellow cyclists with him in a maelstrom of flying limbs and wheels.
It was not quite as spectacular as the occasion when a policeman attempted to take a photograph of the finish sprint at Armentieres in 1994, causing Laurent Jalabert to lose several teeth. But, unlike that incident, all bar the first 25 or 30 were affected.
As the leaders sprinted for the finish, led in by Italy's new sprint hero Alessandro Petacchi, the fallers blocked the road, meaning that the rest of the field had to stop, which resulted in them crossing the line in dribs and drabs.
Armstrong landed on the heap of bikes and bodies, rather than flying over them, and they broke his fall.
"I didn't see what caused it," Armstrong said. "I just went down and some other riders fell on top of me. Things like that make you angry, but it's always like this in the first week of the Tour."
It could, however, have been far worse and, in a grisly way, his task may now be easier.
His fellow American Tyler Hamilton, a likely contender for a top-three placing overall, may not start today's stage after breaking his collarbone, while Levi Leipheimer, who came eighth last year, broke a bone in his hip.
The French sprinter Jimmy Casper, who went right over Gutierrez and fell on his head, was placed in a neck brace on the tarmac but is apparently unharmed, while the Dutchman Marc Lotz has severe facial injuries.
The only favourite to avoid the crash was Ullrich, who spent most of the nervous final kilometres yesterday sitting in the front rank of the peloton, sheltered by a single domestique from his Bianchi team. Gilberto Simoni, of Italy, was among the fallers, as was the maillot jaune Bradley McGee, of Australia, although both were shaken rather than stirred.
David Millar rarely avoids a pile-up - he fell three times in three days last year - but was in the first line of riders who managed to slam their brakes on in time, and tiptoed around the mess.
Fortunately the Tour has a rule - devised with precisely this sort of accident in mind - that if a crash takes place in the final kilometre, all the fallers are given the same time as the winner. There is currently a campaign among the riders to have the distance extended to five kilometres and, given the terrifying mix of roundabouts, corners and traffic islands that they had to negotiate at over 35 m.p.h. on yesterday's run-in, they may have a case.
It is a sign of the times - and perhaps a good one, given the current state of Franco-American relations - that there were as many stars and stripes as tricouleurs alongside the route yesterday, once the peloton had left the Stade de France and pedalled gently across Paris, from one side of the peripherique to the other, in a procession lasting 19 miles.
Their initial destination was the Reveil-Matin café in the suburb of Montgeron, where the first Tour was flagged away at 3.16 p.m. on July 1st, 1903, and the start point of yesterday's opening road stage.
Possibly in homage to the Texan who currently rules the Tour, although possibly not, the Reveil-Matin is now "le Pub Restaurant Hacienda Tex-Mex".
Outside, the café is painted a lurid purple and orange; inside the cultures clash just as incongruously. A faded photo of the first Tour winner, Maurice Garin, and a turn-of-the-century clunker bike rub shoulders with Texan long-horns, bullwhips and feathered Native American head-dresses, and a fine portrait of Clint Eastwood, cigar in mouth.Further evidence of the American cultural invasion, and confirmation for those who fear that the Tour now just represents a fistful of dollars.
If the Reveil-Matin did not quite rise to expectations, memories of Tours past were stirred in another way yesterday when the German Olaf Pollack, one of the many victims of the great pile-up, was forced to walk across the finish line, carrying his bent bike on his shoulder.
This was the kind of image that was common in the Tour's heroic era either side of the first World War, but Pollack spoiled the impression by smiling and waving at the crowd.
Guardian Service
(168-km between Montgeron and Meaux)
1. A Petacchi (Italy) Fassa Bortolo ... 3 hours 44 minutes 33 seconds
2. R McEwen (Australia) Lotto
3. E Zabel (Germany) Team Telekom
4. P Bettini (Italy) Quick Step
5. B Cooke (Australia) FDJeux.com
6. T Hushovd (Norway) Credit Agricole
7. O Freire (Spain) Rabobank
8. L Paolini (Italy) Quick Step
9. R Vainsteins (Latvia) Vini Caldirola
10. J Kirsipuu (Estonia) Ag2r all same time
Leading overall standings (yellow jersey): 1. B McGee (Australia) FDJeux.com 3 hours 51 minutes 55 seconds 2. D Millar (Britain) Cofidis 4 seconds behind 3. H Zubeldia (Spain) Euskaltel 6 4. J Ullrich (Germany) Team Bianchi same time 5. V Hugo Pena (Colombia) US Postal Service 10 6. T Hamilton (US) Team CSC 7. A Flickinger (France) Ag2r both same time 8. L Armstrong (US) US Postal Service 11 9. J Beloki (Spain) ONCE 13 10. S Botero (Columbia) Team Telekom same time.
Leading overall points standings (green jersey): 1. R McEwen (Australia) Lotto 36 2. A Petacchi (Italy) Fassa Bortolo 35 3. E Zabel (Germany) Team Telekom 26 4. P Bettini (Italy) Quick Step 24 5. B Cooke (Australia) FDJeux.com 22 6. T Hushovd (Norway) Credit Agricole 20 7. B McGee (Australia) FDJeux.com 19 8. O Freire (Spain) Rabobank 19 9. L Paolini (Italy) Quick Step 18 10. Romans Vainsteins (Latvia) Vini Caldirola 17.
Leading team standings: 1. US Postal service 11 hours 36 minutes 21 seconds 2. Team Bianchi 8 seconds behind 3. FDJeaux.com 17 4. Euskaltel 18 5. Ag2R 19.
Leading young rider (under-25) standings (white jersey): 1. A Flickinger (France) Ag2r 3:52.05.
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