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| Stage 1 finish town of Bastia, Corsica |
The scenic island of Corsica
hosted stage one of the 2013 Tour De France today under warm sunny skies. The
stage ended in chaos and mayhem however, as the Orica GreenEdge team bus got
stuck passing under the finish line banner, with the peloton only a few miles
from the finish. While the organizers raced to clear the massive obstruction, a
new finish line was announced, and then the original one returned as the bus
was finally cleared. During the confusion, several crashes marred the finale, and
in the end neither Mark Cavendish, nor André Greipel, nor Peter Sagan were
there to contest the finish sprint.
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| Marcel Kittel wins the stage 1 finish sprint |
The survivors duked it out,
and Argos Shimano’s German sprinter, Marcel Kittel took advantage of the
absence of the “big three” sprinters, and dashed to the win and the yellow
leader’s jersey. The victims of the mass crash that delayed Cavendish, Sagan, Alberto
Contador and others were all given the same time as the winners since the crash
happened within 3k of the newly-announced finish line at 3k to go.
Click “read more” to see how
the stage unfolded and the complete results:
