PLUMELEC, France -- Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme hopes that changes to this year's race format will provide more suspense.
For the first time since 1967, the showcase event started today without its traditional opening-day prologue -- the short time trial format that seven-time winner Lance Armstrong used to demoralize his rivals.
"We need to get out of the stereotype of previous Tours," Prudhomme told The Associated Press, adding that he hopes for more "more mystery" and that the rhythm of the race will be "less predictable."
Some riders, such as Norway's Thor Hushovd, weren't impressed with the start.
"I consider that as a bit of a handicap," said the Credit Agricole rider, who won the 2006 prologue. "I can hold my own in this discipline, and it is always a chance for the team to get the yellow jersey right away."
The first time trial, however, is earlier than usual -- in the fourth stage -- and there are tougher, hillier stages before the traditional mountain showdown in the Pyrenees and the Alps.
"The route has been designed so that the favourites will not be able to hide away for very long," Prudhomme said. "With the absence of the prologue, a time trial as early as the fourth stage, and a medium mountain in the seventh (stage), there are many chances for riders to try their luck. I think there will be a scrap during the three weeks."
Prudhomme's prediction came true when the first stage, a 122.7-mile run from Brest to Plumelec with a difficult uphill finish, was won by Spaniard Alejandro Valverde, one of the race favourites.
Overall contenders like Valverde usually spend the early stages trying to avoid the kind of accident that befell last year's king of the mountains, Juan Mauricio Soler, on Saturday.
The Colombian, one of several cyclists who fell in the race, lost three minutes to Valverde and finished with blood pouring from his left knee and left elbow, while Belgian rider Johan Vansummeren hit the back of a team car.
"It was a bit too windy. It was hectic," said veteran American rider George Hincapie. "It was really a nerve-racking dangerous day."
The Associated Press
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