Stage 1 Preview and Results

Stage 1: Rotterdam → Brussels
Date: Sunday, July 4
Distance: 224 km

Stage 1 start time: Sunday 11:45 CEST (9:45:00 AM GMT+0000); Weather for Rotterdam
Earliest live video: 14:30 CEST (12:30:00 PM GMT+0000); Live video, audio and text options
Approximate finish: 17:40 CEST (3:40:00 PM GMT+0000); Weather for Brussels

Stage 1 results: Just like the infamous Tour de Suisse crash finish in June, Alessandro Petacchi escapes the carnage for the win

Stage 1 results
1  Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre)             5:09:38
2  Mark Renshaw (Columbia)
3  Thor Hushovd (Cervelo)
4  Robbie McEwen  (Katusha)
5  Matthieu Ladagnous (Fdj)
6  Daniel Oss (Liquigas-Doimo)               + 0:02
7  Jose Joaquin Rojas  (Caisse d’Epargne) 
8  Christian Knees (Team Milram) 
9  Ruben Perez Moreno (Euskaltel - Euskadi) 
10 Jürgen Roelandts  (Omega Pharma - Lotto)

General Classification after Stage 1
1  Fabian Cancellara (SUI) Team Saxo Bank 
2  Tony Martin (GER) Team HTC - Columbia           
3  David Millar (GBR) Garmin - Transitions 

Stage 1 preview: Rotterdam → Brussels, 224 km (flat)

The Stage 1 profile looks like it sets up for sprint finish, but the route will pass the same stretch of windswept Holland coastline that shattered the field during stage 3 of this past Giro d'Italia

June 27 post: The first road stage begins where the prologue left off in Rotterdam with a second crossing of the Erasmus bridge (Erasmusbrug).

From Rotterdam, the stage heads south for a brief tour of the Dutch coastline -- the same windswept coastline that shattered the field during stage 3 of this year's Giro d'Italia. Stage 1 of the Tour de France heads inland where as the Giro continued down the coast to Middleburg so strong winds along the coast will not affect this stage as much. The inland portion of the route will head through Flanders, home to one of the monuments of cycling, Tour of Flanders. Tom Boonen says the roads inland towards Bussels will be "narrow and hectic" and that this stage will be important to the Belgian guys.

After a very flat 224 km stage with no KOMs, there is a bump before the race finishes in front of the King Baudouin stadium in Brussels to celebrate Eddy Merckx's 65th birthday. Merckx, considered the greatest cyclist of all-time, was born east of Brussels in the small Belgian town of Meensel-Kiezegem on June 17, 1945 just one month after the end of World War II. The route will pass through Meise, 10 km before the finish, where he currently lives.

The first sprint finish of the Tour is always a chaotic, nervous affair for the overzealous peloton. — Steve

Photos from Giro d'Italia stage 3 which overlaps with Tour de France Stage 1
  Bernard Hinault Previews Stage 1 in english and en français (01:19) — letour.fr
  Bob Roll Previews Stage 1 (01:28) — versus

Last Km Profile