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Petacchi rockets to victory as British tour kicks off
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Italian sprinter Alessandro Petacchi (LPR Brakes-Ballan) opened The Tour of Britain on Sunday with an exciting sprint finish in the shadow of Big Ben, holding off Rob Hayles (Great Britain) and Magnus Backstedt (Garmin-Chipotle) to take victory in London.
The rain relented long enough to allow the peloton to attack the 10-lap, 86km circuit in relatively dry conditions in front of an estimated crowd of more than 100,000.
The race was dominated by an eight-man break that spent more than half the race away: Tom Southam and Kristian House (Rapha Condor Recycling.co.uk), Australians Simon Clarke (South Australia.com-AIS) and Chris Sutton (Garmin-Chipotle), plus Daryl Impey (Barloworld), Anders Lund (CSC-Saxo Bank), Vicente Reynes (Columbia) and Danilo Di Luca (LPR Brakes-Ballan).
But the escapees never took more than 46 seconds on the bunch, and as the peloton closed in on them on the fast, straight roads, Di Luca launched a last-gasp solo attack on the eighth ascent of Tower Hill. The Italian managed to hold off the field for just over a lap, but as Agritubel's Geoffroy Lequatre tried to cross the gap, the field, led by CSC-Saxo Bank, pulled both back with a little over a lap to go.
CSC and Garmin-Chipotle battled to control the field on the final go-round to set up their respective sprinters. As the field entered the final kilometer it was Garmin's Julian Dean on the front looking to lead out Backstedt. But Petacchi and British champion Hayles swept past in the final meters.
For the Italian it was an emotional victory, coming on his return to the sport following an anti-doping suspension.
"I'm very very happy with the win,” said Petacchi. “Today I stayed good and my team raced very well. Now I think I start a new life of cycling, with a new team.
“My team did very good work in the last 2km, and on the last lap I stayed on the wheel of Backstedt, but I did a good sprint, which is a big relief."
Petacchi leads the race going into Monday's 145.4km stage from Milton Keynes to Newbury. He also takes the green jersey, which will be worn by runner-up Hayles. House, who won two of three King of the Mountains ascents, will wear the climber’s jersey.
Rounding out the jerseys is CSC's Lund, who secured the sprints jersey by holding off Sutton and Impey at the second and third hot-spot sprints. Di Luca took the combativity award.
