Valverde wins first stage and claims maillot jaune

Stage one of the Tour is in the books and Alejandro Valverde has thrown down the gauntlet, coming around Kim Kirchen in the final meters and getting a clear gap on the field to win the stage and the yellow jersey. All of the favourites finished in the first group but Valverde has clearly made a statement of his intentions and, at least today, none of the other contenders had an answer.

Team Columbia (formerly High Road), who have nifty new blue kit, did a perfect job setting up Kim Kirchen for the finale. Adam Hansen put on an impressive display of power in the final 4km, putting out almost 800 watts to make sure Kirchen was well placed. He made an impressive attack, but may have gone a bit to far out as the combination of the hill (there was a 2km hill to the finish) and a headwind were too much.

Valverde easily came around him and took the win with a one second gap. He is clearly telling the other favourites that he's going to take it to them when he has the ability and opportunity -- and that's what we're looking for in a champion. Let's see if Evans, who seems to be naturally more of a follower than pace setter can respond to the challenge.

A great start to what promises to be an exciting Tour.

UPDATE: I was following the Garmin Chipotle twitter feed during the stage and they achieved their objectives for the day, which as to keep David Millar, Christian Vande Velde and Ryder Hesjedal safe in anticipation of a good showing in the Stage 4 time trial. I think their goal is to get Vande Velde into yellow.