LES HERBIERS, France (AFP) ? Uphill sprint specialist Philippe Gilbert dominated an incident-packed first stage of the Tour de France here on Saturday to win his first stage on the race and pull on the yellow jersey.
Defending champion Alberto Contador of Spain was involved in a mass pile-up 9km from the finish, the Spaniard trailing home in 82nd place, 1min 20sec behind Gilbert as the Belgian lived up to pre-race predictions.
Gilbert's Omega-Pharma team had been on the front of the bunch for most of the 191.5km ride from Passage du Gois as they chased down a three-man breakaway that took off from the first metres of the race.
Having built a maximum lead approaching five minutes, they were reeled in with just over 18km to race.
From then on, it was a fight for position as the peloton negotiated their way through terrain that included a number of crash-inducing roundabouts and traffic islands.
Gilbert, racing his fifth Tour but his first since 2008, avoided the carnage to find himself behind the last two team-mates tasked with winding up the pace on the final climb in a bid to drop his rivals.
Late attempts by Alexandre Vinokourov and Fabian Cancellara to foil Gilbert proved futile, the Belgian countering each in commanding fashion.
When Cancellara went just inside the final kilometre, Gilbert knew it was time to go. He pulled level with the Swiss, and left him trailing with 400 metres remaining to solo to victory.
"I dream of winning big races like Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Amstel or Fleche Wallonne, but to win here on the Tour de France is also something very special," said Gilbert, who won all three races, known as the Ardennes classics, earlier this year.
"In the final I knew that Cancellara was going to attack, and I knew he'd attack where he did. With the big engine he has, he is capable of coming from the back and taking everyone by surprise.
"And when I saw that he was up the road on his own, that's when I knew I could go."
Despite his climbing skills, second-placed Cadel Evans had not been tipped to come so close to victory on the uphill finish.
However, with his BMC team taking their responsibilities at the front of the peloton after the three-man break had been caught, the Australian was fully deserving.
"First place is always better, but second is not too bad," said Evans.
"It's a good start, a pleasant surprise."
Cancellara, who would eventually finish 18th, said: "I might have attacked a bit too early. Gilbert jumped straight to my wheel, and he stayed there until he went again. I wasn?t ready to follow his move."
The Europcar team of local hope Thomas Voeckler had saved precious energy staying in the bunch thanks to Perrig Quemener jumping into the breakaway early on.
And with around 15km to go the men in green appeared in numbers at the front, driving the pace hard and stretching out the bunch.
Although Voeckler hit the wall when Cancellara attacked, the Frenchman conceded that Gilbert was simply unbeatable.
"I was fighting for the runner-up places," admitted Voeckler.
"And whoever says he just missed beating Gilbert is being a bit economical with the truth."
Hushovd, who took his first win of 2011 at the Tour of Switzerland two weeks ago, admitted he did not have the legs to challenge the Belgian.
"It was a hell of a hard day," the Norwegian told AFP.
"Our team was working hard to chase down the breakaway with Omega-Pharma and in the end I think there was a lot of teams who wanted to make it hard for riders like me. I was dead for the sprint.
"But when Gilbert goes like that, no one can hold on to him."
Gilbert, however, is being tipped to lose the yellow jersey on Sunday's second stage, a 23km team time-trial.
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