Stage 1: Safe and Sound Though the first road stage of the 2004 Tour de France ended in a field sprint, the stage was by no means a flat and easy day. The first half of the day was raced through undulating Belgian hills in the rain. It was only in the last third of the stage that the roads finally widened and set the stage for a bunch sprint. Racing in the rain tends to be more chaotic than normal. It's more difficult to see because of the spray coming off the wheels ahead of you, your brakes don't work as well, and the road surface and crosswalks get very slippery. Wheels touch, riders go down, everyone gets a little more nervous, more wheels touch, and the cycle continues. The best place to be is right at the front of the field, and that's right where you could find all the Tour de France favorites today. A quick glance across the front of the peloton this afternoon showed Lance Armstong, Jan Ullrich, Iban Mayo, Tyler Hamilton and occasionally Robert Heras riding within the first twenty positions on the road. They were all staying near the front to stay out of trouble and avoid the inevitable first day crashes. Hamilton's teammate, and one of his chief lieutenants for the mountains, Oscar Sevilla, was involved in one of today's crashes. Even though he did not appear to be injured, even a minor crash leaves you sore. Couple that with the fact he had to chase back to the peloton and stop to change his bike, and now you have made a relatively easy day quite a bit harder. Every time you dig into your reserves early in this race, it takes away from the energy you'll have when it matters the most. The US Postal Service seems to have made it through the first day unscathed. Notice George Hincapie finished right next to Armstrong? George, Vjatcheslav Ekimov, and Floyd Landis were given the job of keeping Lance safe today, and at least one of them could be seen with him at all times. In contrast, the T-Mobile team was scattered around the peloton for most of the day, only coming to the front with a late effort to set up their sprinter, Erik Zabel. Though team leader Ullrich is more than capable of looking after himself in the bunch, it's interesting to see him as the only team leader all alone up at the front of the peloton. Expect tomorrow to be very similar to today; there will certainly be at least one breakaway that attempts to thwart the sprinters' plans, and it's likely the break will again get swallowed up in the closing kilometers. The finish is going to be dicey tomorrow, with a sharp turn just 200 meters from the line. If it's raining and the road is wet, it's going be downright dangerous, but the lure of a Tour stage win is enough to make the sprinters accept such risks.