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PLUMELEC, France : Spaniard Alejandro Valverde drew first blood in his bid to win the Tour de France by pulling on the yellow jersey for the first time after a chaotic first stage here Saturday.
Valverde, riding for Caisse d'Epargne, punched his way past Luxembourg's Kim Kirchen late on the final climb leading to the uphill finish of the 197.5km stage to claim just his second stage win on the race.
The 28-year-old Spaniard now has a one-second overall lead over yellow jersey favourite Cadel Evans of Australia, who finished sixth on a stage where all the favourites were desperate to stay near the front.
Kirchen had given his newly-named Garmin team the chance of a dream start to the Tour when he attacked late on the 1.7km Cadoudal climb in a bid to counter Germany's Stefan Schumacher.
However, the Luxemburger, one of several outsiders for this year's yellow jersey, was stunned by Valverde's late charge.
As Kirchen rounded a final bend and prepared for the last 200 metre dash for the line, the Spaniard closed a 100-metre gap in a matter of seconds and flew past him.
Kirchen was eventually pushed down to fourth by Belgian Philippe Gilbert, who came second, and Frenchman Jerome Pineau, who finished third.
Valverde is considered one of the best at winning the hilly races that finish on an incline, a fact the Liege-Bastogne-Liege one-day classic champion was quick to confirm.
"The stage suited me perfectly," said the Spaniard, whose last stage win on the race goes back to his 10th stage victory at Courchevel in the Alps in 2005.
"At the end it was a case of calculating the distance and the timing, and I got it right."
At this early stage of the race the yellow jersey will weigh heavily on Valverde's shoulders.
And defending it, he says, is not going to be a priority - for now at least.
"It's a bit early to be taking the jersey. It's great for me and the team but we won't be taking any unnecessary risks.
"The most important thing is to have it in Paris."
For the first time since 1967 the world's biggest race did not kick off with a time trial prologue, with organisers determined to shake up the first week and get the yellow jersey race going as quickly as possible.
With the first stage passing through the home town of France's last winner, Bernard Hinault, in 1985, it took only two kilometres for one of French riders to attack.
Lilian Jegou's break was soon followed by seven other riders, and they went on to build a maximum lead of just over eight minutes, at the 29km mark, before the peloton decided to react.
Valverde's Caisse d'Epargne team played a vital role in the chase, helping to halve their deficit by the time they had passed through the feed zone at the halfway stage.
Sniffing their fate, it was soon to be every man for himself at the front as the peloton closed the gap to 3:15 with 55km to race.
Jegou and Spaniard David de la Fuente then pulled away at the front, but they were reeled in with 7.5km to go and from then on it was chaos as the race's punchers and yellow jersey men fought to get to the front.
Jegou later picked up the jersey for being the most aggressive rider on the day, conceding that their eight-minute lead was never going to be enough.
"We would have had to have a lead of 10-15 minutes to get to the finish without being caught," said the Francaise des Jeux rider.
"At the end it was really tough. The peloton just decided to reel us in, and we didn't have any help with the wind conditions."
Frenchman Thomas Voeckler, who was part of the eight-man break, picked up the polka dot jersey for the race's best climber.
Francaise des Jeux rider Gilbert will wear the green jersey - but only because the points competition leader Valverde is in yellow.
- AFP /ls
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