Hmm! What is happening to the predictions? Alessandro Petacchi was supposed to pick up today where he left off in the Giro d'Italia -- as king of the sprints. That didn't happen and I think that I know why.

His team had to work very hard in the first part of the race to pull back that early escape of five riders. And when it came down to the closing kilometers, they had no firepower left to set up the blue train which was so dominant in the Giro.

Just as Mario Cipolinni did before him, Petacchi needs to be launched into orbit by his men to win with the ease that he did a month ago in the Giro. He will get another chance tomorrow, but if he doesn't win then it will start to play on his "psyche.? Sprinters need success to feed on, and he will do his best to try and get win number one under his belt tomorrow, otherwise he will begin to fester.

The other sprinter, my old favorite Mario Cipolinni, hasn't had a great start to the Tour. He had to decimate his fancy skinsuit minutes before the start of the prologue because the referees didn't like it! Then he "decked" it on Stage One, cutting himself up quite badly. I hope he still has the steel and resolve to stick it out and come back to win one final stage before he retires -- which I think will almost certainly be at the end of this season.

None of the top men had any problems today and they shouldn't again tomorrow on another flat stage in Belgium.