The opening stages of the Tour may be flat, but they are always nervous affairs. Every favourite for the yellow jersey is aware that a badly-timed crash or puncture can lose him the race if his peers are in aggressive mood.
Yesterday as the race travelled up the Atlantic coast, five contenders saw their chances disappear after a mass pile-up caused, so some claimed, by a piece of wayward seaweed.
Christophe Rinero of France, the Dutchman Michael Boogerd, and the local rider Jean-Cyril Robin, fourth, fifth and sixth respectively last year, all lost over six minutes together with the Tour of Italy winner Ivan Gotti, and the Swiss Alex Zulle, second in Saturday's prologue time trial.
"Paris ist kaputt," said the bespectacled Zulle to Swiss television as he crossed the line. He has taken over leadership of Miguel Indurain's Spanish Banesto team this year, so he added for the home media that it was also "terminado". His situation did not need translation.
A strong crosswind such as yesterday's always weeds out the ill, nervous and infirm in the Tour. The wind forces the cyclists into one line in the gutter, where all they can see is the wheel ahead. This makes it impossible to tell when one of their number ahead has slowed down, leaving a gap. If the wind is pushing from the back as well as one side, the speed is high and once a gap opens it is virtually impossible to close.
The first pile-up came as the race turned on to the coast near the fishing port of Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie. Over 40 riders - almost a quarter of the field - came down, including Boogerd, who was to have a wretched day, and four of his Rabobank team-mates.
The Dutchman then punctured but fought his way back to the field just as the race reached the point which was to be decisive, at the sinister-sounding Passage du Gois, the tidal causeway linking the Ile de Noirmoutier with the mainland. The waters receded just in time for the race to cross, watched by crowds who had waded out knee deep in seawater to get good viewing points.
The four kilometres were glistening and bumpy, with no shelter from the stiff breeze, and with rockpools, boulders and parked yachts awaiting any cyclist unlucky enough to be swept off the edge. One appeared to slip, and over half the field either came down or were held up by the pile-up; however with almost 60 miles to the finish they could reasonably have been expected to regain contact.
But the wind was bending the reeds around the salt pans and oyster beds, and the ONCE team, led by Abraham Olano, joined forces with the US Postal team-mates of Lance Armstrong, and the French Casino team, whose Estonian Jaan Kirsipuu stood every chance of relieving Armstrong of the yellow jersey. Battle was joined with Zulle's Banesto and Gotti's team, Polti, but it was a brief and unequal struggle and those at the back were soon left stranded, helpless as yachts at low tide.
Apart from the stage winner, the burly sprinter Tom Steels of Belgium, the finishing order was more redolent of a mountain stage than a brief burst up the coast where the biggest climb was the Pont de Saint-Nazaire, rated fourth category. The last man trailed in almost 47 minutes after Steels, and two riders abandoned, including Armstrong's team-mate Jonathan Vaughters, a crash victim.
Almost with a sense of relief, the Texan ceded yellow to Kirsipuu, who hoarded every bonus second he could at the intermediate sprints. Armstrong can now sit tight until Sunday's time trial, unless the wind blows again.
