UPDATE – Stage 1 Shake-up – SPOILER – INCLUDES RESULTS

July 2, 2011

Today, in stage 1 of the 2011 Tour de France, there were numerous crashes. But, for some reason even though Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador crashed at the 10KM to go mark and lost about 1:20 on the pack, Andy found a way to get back into the field and finish with everyone.

He did it by crashing AGAIN within the 3KM mark which meant that he got the same finishing time as anyone involved in that crash. As I see it – and I could be wrong – that meant that a rider who didn’t crash got penalized.

And the standings at the end of the day bear that out. The official board has Contador back 1:20 on the pack and Schleck only losing :06 on the leader.

Not sure how that works, but that could be the tour right there because the margin between Schleck and Contador is very slim. I’m just sad they both didn’t finish back by 90 seconds or so.