One of the pre-race favourites, Alejandro Valverde, won Stage 1 of the three-week bicycle race in France, passing Columbia’s Kim Kirchen with a big acceleration in the final 200 meters on the uphill finish into Plumelec for the stage win and the yellow jersey.

Valverde was fifth wheel when he attacked and bridged a big gap to Kirchen.

“On the final hill I calculated the distance well. It was exactly right to attack with 300 meters to go,” letour.com quoted Valverde as saying. “I already had plenty of confidence but this is a real boost. It’s early to take the leader’s jersey but it will last as long as it can. We’ll try to defend it over the coming days but the important thing is to have the yellow jersey in Paris.”

Kirchen ended up fourth, behind Phillipe Gilbert of Francaise des Jeux and Jérôme Pineau of Buoygues Telecom. Those three were among 12 riders, including Saunier Duval-Scott’s Ricardo Ricco and Silence Lotto’s Cadel Evans and Frank Schleck of CSC-Saxo, who were all given a time 1 second behind Valverde. David Millar of Garmin-Chipotle also was in that group.

Other contenders were seven seconds back: Carlos Sastre and Andy Schleck of CSC-Saxo, Denis Menchov of Rabobank, Damiamo Cunego of Lampre, Trent Lowe and Christian Vande Velde of Garmin-Chipotle and Konstantin Sivtsov, Thomas Lovkvist and Big George Hincapie of Columbia. The three Columbia riders had helped spring Kirchen for his attack. Other big names in the top 47 included Fabian Cancellara and Big Jens Voight of CSC-Saxo, and Thor Hushovd of Credit Agricole.

Twas a nervous stage with four crashes, including two that shattered the field near the end, with 47 riders finishing within 7 seconds and the rest scattered back to almost five minutes behind. All of the main contenders were in the leading 47 riders, with the one notable exception Juan Mauricio Soler of Barloworld. Last year’s King of the Mountains got caught up in a crash and finished 3:04 behind the Valverde.

Big Magnus Backstedt of Garmin-Chipotle was tired …, er, tied for the lantern rouge with Stéphane Auge of Cofidis, Wim Ansevenant of Silence-Lotto and Aleksandr Kuschynski of Liquiga, 4:56 behind Valverde.

Valverde’s team, Caisse d’Epargne, was one of the teams who helped reel in the original eight-man breakaway that got a maximum lead of 8 minutes 15 seconds. Riders in the break were: Thomas Voeckler of Bouygeus Telecome, Lilian Jegou of Francaise des Jeux, Ruben Perez of Euskatel-Euskadi, Björn Schroder of Milram, David De La Fuente of Saunier Duval-Scott, Jose Luis Arrieta AG2R-La Mondiale , Geoffroy Lequatre of Agritubel and Stéphane Auge of Cofidis.

“My team did phenomenal work for me today and it soon became obvious that the finish was suited to my strengths,” letour quoted Valverde as saying. “I had (José Ivan) Gutierrez leading me all the time to help me avoid any crashes.”

Hervé Duclos-Lassalle of Cofidis was the only rider to abandon, going down with a possible broken arm in a crash in the feed zone halfway through the stage.

–30–