It will be gone the champion capable of winning both the classics and the great stage races. The riders able to compete throughout the entire season, from March to October, from Sanremo to the Giro di Lombardia, have also practically disappeared. But one cannot fail to recognize that this year's Tour had a "designer" start, immediately showcasing the best that cycling could offer these days. Three days, three winners who bear the signature of Fabian Cancellara, the strongest passer-finisseur around; Of Peter Sagan, the best promise of the world bike; and of Mark Cavendish, the king of sprinters, who today achieved his 21st career success at the Tournai finish line. The yellow jersey is still on the shoulders of Fabian Cancellara, thanks to the advantage obtained in the victorious prologue time trial in Liège which confirms him as one of the chrono-man most powerful of all time. In Seraing, site of the first stage on the road, Sagan, the young Slovak from Liquigas, was the first to dart by, unleashing a deadly progression in the last 1.500 meters on a constant slope in front of which none other than Cancellara himself gave up, finishing second. After winning four fractions in thelast Tour of Switzerland, Sagan with the exploit of Seraing rightfully enters the "signatures" of this Tour. In a cycling increasingly accustomed to winners over the age of thirty (see the cases of Cadel Evans at the 2011 Tour and Ryder Hesjedal at the 2012 Giro not to mention Bradley Wiggins, the favorite with Evans for the final victory of this Tour) Sagan is a pleasant surprise: he has a very young age on his side (he was born in 1990) but already a record of impressive successes: only in the last month four stages in the Giro of Switzerland before the masterpiece in Seraing.
Today was Mark Cavendish's turn: a success packed with cunning and power. Cannonball lined up his all-time rivals in the crowded sprints of the Tour: behind the British world champion were classified, in order, the German André Greipel and the Australian Matthew Goss. And in this assembly of specialists it is not to be thrown away, on the contrary the fifth place of Alessandro Petacchi, 39 years old on January 3rd, who came to France to win at least one stage (it would be the seventh for him) is encouraging. Cancellara retains the record, thus bringing the number of yellow shirts worn to 24. The absolute record belongs to Eddy Merck with 115, but among active riders, the Swiss is closely followed only by the Frenchman Thomas Vockler at 20. Tomorrow's third stage, from Orchies to Boulogne on Mer of 197 km with a rather bumpy finish, an ideal temptation for Sagan to try and do an encore . Cancellara and Philippe Gilbert permitting.
