Prince William with his wife Kate and brother Harry to act as starter at the departure from Leeds and to reward the first yellow jersey at the finish line in Harrogate; an enthusiastic and overflowing crowd lined the sides of the roads which climbed the rolling hills of Yorkshire as if one were climbing the Zoncolan or the Alpe d'Huez; an unusually summery sun for these latitudes that exalted the colors of an intact nature with its farms defined by thousand-year-old low walls: England could not have better greeted the return of the Tour seven years after the last time during which English cycling he is imposed at the top of the world until he conquers the last two Grande Boucle with Wiggins and Froome. But in Harrogate, to complete the party, the English were waiting for the success of Mark Cavendish which didn't come: Cannonball crashed 300 meters from the finish, colliding with Simon Gerrans in an attempt to find a gap for the final rush with the best sprinters chasing Cancellara, who had surprised everyone by extending in the last km and a half with a progression of his own. The Swiss, yellow jersey in the London prologue time trial in 2007, however, was not the train that won the Tour of Flanders this year. He was caught up and overtaken enough to finish 11th. The sprint was a head-to-head between Marcel Kittel and Peter Sagan: the German of Giant–Shimano prevailed by force, an authentic force of nature, who collected four victories in last year's Tour and who this year was out at the he slips away from the Giro after making two hits in the first two Irish stages of the pink race. While Kate, an exceptional miss, with princely elegance offered the yellow jersey to Kittel, Cavendish, after having remained on the ground for a long time, leaning against a balustrade with a battered and blocked shoulder, managed to get back on the saddle to cross the finish line, with right arm immobilized. The crowd was all for him, the generous and unfortunate champion. So scared but perhaps there is no collarbone fracture: if so, Cavendish should continue the race. The Tour is long and there will be other opportunities to achieve the 26th stage victory. But the dream of wearing that missing yellow jersey seems to have vanished on the asphalt of Harrogate this year.
Resolved with a general sprint, the first stage of the Tour was however not a trivial stage as its soft altitude suggested. And not only for the spectacle of the crowd that accompanied the yellow caravan, often forcing the group to stand in single file, or even stop. It was enlivened by a breakaway by Jens Voigt, the German who at 43 is the oldest in the Tour with Chris Horner, a race that sees him at the start since 1998 without ever missing an edition. A record for this prodigy of tenacity who at the end of the stage took to the stage to wear the first polka dot jersey of leader of the climbers – thanks to being the first to cross two fourth category hills. In the end, Cavendish's fall also made it black by re-proposing the risk factor that looms over the riders not only in every sprint, but in every curve or roundabout, a real Tour (but also Giro) stress that induces everyone, especially the big names, never to be distracted for a moment. Indeed, Froome and Contador were more than careful not to incur any damage. The Spaniard was always indoors, the British a little further ahead so as to finish sixth, without even wanting to participate, in the final sprint won by Kittel. The Tour is just beginning: for the two big favorites the important thing is to get to the decisive stages without losing sight of each other but also without grazes and traumas. A Tour without huge climbs but equally to be experienced in which finally in the running for the final yellow jersey there is also an Italian, Vincenzo Nibali, with all the trappings of authority that comes from his palmarés, enriched just on the eve of the Tour , from the Italian champion's tricolor shirt. And it doesn't matter if yesterday at his departure from Leeds he wasn't the best-known Italian in the city and surrounding area, overtaken in popularity, albeit amid suspicions towards characters who come from outside, by Massimo Cellino, the Sardinian agricultural entrepreneur who left behind the troubled presidency at Cagliari, bought the local football team in February of this year: Leeds United, the club three times winner of the Premier League, where in the XNUMXs the story of John Charles began, the giant it was good that when he moved to Juve he proved to be an authentic force of nature capable of scoring Omar Sivori's magical touches.
The Tour will remain in Great Britain for three stages, the last of which will arrive in the heart of London, at the Mall in front of Buckingham Palace, on the same Olympic finish line that saw the victory of the Kazakh Aleksandr in 2012. Vinokourov, now general manager of Astana, Nibali's team. These will be stages in which no big player will want to reveal their cards, leaving the stage of the race to others. As promptly happened yesterday with the champions of the sprint in the showcase in the final rush at Harrogate. Today, Sunday, the more technical stage is scheduled with a route that is very reminiscent of the Liège-Bastogne-Liège with repeated spurts: in April the Australian Simon Gerrans triumphed in the Doyenne, involved and bruised in the final tumult triggered by Cavendish and as such hardly able to repeat the spring exploit. A stage that lends itself to coups de manos: among the excellent names, the first that come to mind, for a possible victory on the finish line in York, are those of Rui Costa or Cancellara, who already tried without success yesterday.
