BRUSSELS // Alessandro Petacchi won the crash-marred first stage of the Tour de France yesterday, with top sprint rivals and overall contenders such as Lance Armstrong delayed by the spills.
Three crashes tangled up riders in the last few kilometres, including a big crash within the last kilometre that stalled race leader Fabian Cancellara and Armstrong amid a large bunch.
The top of the standings did not change: Cancellara, the Swiss who won the prologue on Saturday, retained the yellow jersey and seven-time Tour champion Armstrong remained fourth, 22 seconds back.
Alberto Contador, the 2009 champion, was sixth, 27 seconds behind, following the 225.5km trek through flat Belgian and Dutch lowlands from Rotterdam to Brussels.
Armstrong did not go down in the crashes, but Cancellara did. "It was really nervous today, and at the end it was just insane," he said.
"At the end, I couldn't do anything. I was also in the chaos. I hit the ground pretty hard. Tomorrow I will feel the asphalt that I found at the end."
Britain's Mark Cavendish, a sprinter who won six Tour stages last year, and Oscar Freire, of Spain, crashed while negotiating a sharp turn in the latter part of the stage.
Then, in the last kilometre, a massive pileup left Petacchi, the Italian Lampre rider, with a relatively easy sprint to victory ahead of the 20 riders who were able to avoid the carnage.
Petacchi clocked 5hrs 9mins 38secs for the stage, screaming and thrusting his index fingers into the air as he crossed the finish. The 36-year-old is riding his first Tour since 2004 ? a year after he collected four stage victories.
Britain's David Millar and the Giro d'Italia winner Ivan Basso crashed after a dog darted into the peloton around the 56km mark. They both got up and returned to the race.
Cavendish was without the services of one of his top lead-out men: HTC-Columbia teammate Adam Hansen of Australia fell in an early crash. Team officials said it was not clear what happened, but they suspected a broken left collarbone and said Hansen would go directly to the hospital after the stage.
Alexander Pliuschin, the Moldavian champion, burst out of the pack with about 24km left to catch three breakaway riders who had jumped out very early.
He and Belgium's Martin Wynants held off the main bunch until being overtaken with just over 9km to go.
Riders embark on another mostly flat ride in the second stage today, a 201km ride from Brussels to Spa.
* AP
The language of diplomacy in 1853
Treaty of Peace in Perpetuity Agreed Upon by the Chiefs of the Arabian Coast on Behalf of Themselves, Their Heirs and Successors Under the Mediation of the Resident of the Persian Gulf, 1853
(This treaty gave the region the name “Trucial States”.)
We, whose seals are hereunto affixed, Sheikh Sultan bin Suggar, Chief of Rassool-Kheimah, Sheikh Saeed bin Tahnoon, Chief of Aboo Dhebbee, Sheikh Saeed bin Buyte, Chief of Debay, Sheikh Hamid bin Rashed, Chief of Ejman, Sheikh Abdoola bin Rashed, Chief of Umm-ool-Keiweyn, having experienced for a series of years the benefits and advantages resulting from a maritime truce contracted amongst ourselves under the mediation of the Resident in the Persian Gulf and renewed from time to time up to the present period, and being fully impressed, therefore, with a sense of evil consequence formerly arising, from the prosecution of our feuds at sea, whereby our subjects and dependants were prevented from carrying on the pearl fishery in security, and were exposed to interruption and molestation when passing on their lawful occasions, accordingly, we, as aforesaid have determined, for ourselves, our heirs and successors, to conclude together a lasting and inviolable peace from this time forth in perpetuity.
Taken from Britain and Saudi Arabia, 1925-1939: the Imperial Oasis, by Clive Leatherdale
On racial profiling at airports
Pots for the Asian Qualifiers
Pot 1: Iran, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, China
Pot 2: Iraq, Uzbekistan, Syria, Oman, Lebanon, Kyrgyz Republic, Vietnam, Jordan
Pot 3: Palestine, India, Bahrain, Thailand, Tajikistan, North Korea, Chinese Taipei, Philippines
Pot 4: Turkmenistan, Myanmar, Hong Kong, Yemen, Afghanistan, Maldives, Kuwait, Malaysia
Pot 5: Indonesia, Singapore, Nepal, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Guam, Macau/Sri Lanka
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
PROFILE OF SWVL
Started: April 2017
Founders: Mostafa Kandil, Ahmed Sabbah and Mahmoud Nouh
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport
Size: 450 employees
Investment: approximately $80 million
Investors include: Dubai’s Beco Capital, US’s Endeavor Catalyst, China’s MSA, Egypt’s Sawari Ventures, Sweden’s Vostok New Ventures, Property Finder CEO Michael Lahyani
Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale
Starring: Nayanthara, Vignesh Shivan, Radhika Sarathkumar, Nagarjuna Akkineni
Director: Amith Krishnan
Rating: 3.5/5
The President's Cake
Director: Hasan Hadi
Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
Rating: 4/5
Du Football Champions
The fourth season of du Football Champions was launched at Gitex on Wednesday alongside the Middle East’s first sports-tech scouting platform.“du Talents”, which enables aspiring footballers to upload their profiles and highlights reels and communicate directly with coaches, is designed to extend the reach of the programme, which has already attracted more than 21,500 players in its first three years.
