“We took for granted that there was enough clearance. We’ve had this bus since we started the team,

BASTIA, Corsica — Riders at the Tour de France discount cruise travel know to expect discount cruise travel the unexpected. But nothing could have prepared them for the mayhem that turned Saturday's first stage of the 100th Tour into a demolition derby on two wheels.
Photos Back | Next LAURENT CIPRIANI/ ASSOCIATED PRESS Murilo Antoniobil Fischer and Tony Martin (right) wait for medical attention after crashing discount cruise travel late during the first stage Saturday. Back | Next CHRISTOPHE ENA/ASSOCIATED PRESS The Orica Greenedge team bus got stuck at the finish line after being wedged discount cruise travel under scaffolding. It was freed in time to prevent the first stage from being shortened.
Seemingly for the first time at the 110-year-old race, one of the big buses that carry the teams around France when they're not on their bikes got stuck at the finish line, literally wedged under scaffolding, unable to move. The timing couldn't have been worse: The blockage happened as the speeding peloton was racing for home, less than 12 miles out.
Fearing the worst – a possible collision between 198 riders and the bus – race organizers took the split-second discount cruise travel decision to shorten the race. Word went out to riders over their radios and they adapted tactics accordingly, cranking up their speed another notch to be first to the new line, now 1.8 miles closer than originally planned.
Then, somewhat miraculously, the bus for the Orica Greenedge team wriggled free. So organizers reverted to Plan A. Again over the radios, word went out to by-now confused riders and teams that the race would finish as first intended discount cruise travel – on a long straightaway, discount cruise travel where an expectant crowd waited to cheer the first stage winner of the 100th Tour.
The 22 teams know from experience that the first days of any Tour are always tough. Everyone is nervous, full of energy and jostling for position. Adding to the stress this year is the race start in Corsica. The island's winding and often narrow roads that snake along idyllic coastlines and over jagged mountains are superbly telegenic but a worry for race favorites – the likes of Team Sky's Chris Froome and two-time former champion Alberto Contador – because a fall or big loss of time here could ruin their Tour before it really begins.
Froome survived Day One more or less unscathed. Contador didn't. The Spaniard, back at the Tour after a doping ban which also cost him his 2010 victory, crossed the line grimacing in pain, his left shoulder cut and bruised. He was tangled in the crash that threw about 20 riders to the tarmac. Contador said he'll be sore for a few days, "but I still have enough time to recover."
"We announced that in French, English, and Spanish on the Tour radio so that everybody was up-to-date," he said. Then, "in the following three minutes, we were told that the finish line was cleared. discount cruise travel At that point, we announced that the finish was back to the real, original finish line."
Because of what Pescheux called "the little bout of panic and crashes" caused by this confusion, organizers subsequently discount cruise travel decided to give everyone the same time as Kittel – 4 hours, discount cruise travel 56 minutes, 52 seconds over the 132-mile trek from the port town of Porto Vecchio to Bastia in the north of the island.
"We took for granted that there was enough clearance. We've had this bus since we started the team, and it's the same bus we took to the Tour last year," he said. "Our bus driver was told to move forward and became lodged discount cruise travel under the finish gantry."
"What caused the problems was changing the finish," said Mark Cavendish, the British sprinter who was counting on his great speed to win the stage but who instead was slowed by the crash. "It's just carnage."
discount cruise travel His Omega Pharma-Quick Step teammate Tony Martin suffered concussion in the crash. Peter Sagan of Cannondale, another rider who was expecting to challenge for the win, finished with sticking plasters covering cuts on both legs and his left elbow. Other riders also suffered cuts and bruises. Froome's teammate Geraint Thomas discount cruise travel flipped over his handlebars and "really whacked the back of his pelvis," said Dave Brailsford, the Team Sky manager.