Cycling: NZ rider caught up in big Tour crash

New Zealand cyclist Julian Dean couldn't escape the carnage when several cyclists came to grief in a crash on the Tour de France overnight.

The Kiwi rider was taken to hospital for a routine medical check, along with two of his teammates, after the second stage of the race early today.

The injured cyclists included Dean, Christian Vande Velde and Tyler Farrar, all from the Garmin-Transitions team.

Meanwhile, Alessandro Petacchi of Italy won the Tour's first stage, with top sprinting rivals and race favourites such as Lance Armstrong delayed by spills.

Three crashes tangled up riders in the last few kilometres, including a pileup within the last kilometre. Race leader Fabian Cancellara went down, and defending tour champion Alberto Contador scraped a leg by bumping a bike in front as he braked furiously. Both men finished the stage, and had only minor bumps and scrapes.

"Total mayhem," Armstrong quipped, saying several of his RadioShack teammates including Criterium du Dauphine winner Janez Brajkovic got tangled up in the spills - but not Armstrong himself. The seven-time champion only got delayed on a crash-clogged road.

The overall standings did not change in the 223.5km course under sunny skies through flat Belgian and Dutch lowlands from Rotterdam to Brussels.

Cancellara, the Swiss rider who won Sunday's prologue, retained the yellow jersey. Germany's Tony Martin is 10s behind in second, Britain's David Millar third, 20s off the pace. Armstrong trails fourth, 2s further back. Contador is sixth, 27s behind.

"Typical first stage: Everybody wants to be in the front, everybody nervous for crashes," Armstrong said, noting that a huge fan turnout on the roadsides was both good and bad.

"Millions and millions on the road, it's a blessing and a curse. It's so great to have so many supporters."

However, he added: "It makes the guys super-nervous. And on these tight roads, with bad surfaces and a lot of turns there shouldn't be any surprise that there are crashes there."

Top sprinters such as Britain's Mark Cavendish, who won six tour stages last year, and Oscar Freire of Spain, crashed together while negotiating a sharp turn in the last few kilometres.

Then, in the last kilometre, the massive pileup left Lampre rider Petacchi a relatively easy sprint victory ahead of about 20 riders who were able to avoid the spill.

Cancellara went down and Contador slammed on the brakes to avoid the group spill, which blocked the roadway and prevented a large number of riders from getting through.

"It was really nervous today, and at the end it was just insane," said Cancellara, noting that cycling's biggest races mean many riders jostle anxiously for stage-win glory in the early flat stages.

"At the end, I couldn't do anything. I was also in the chaos," he said. "I hit the ground pretty hard ... Tomorrow I will feel the asphalt that I found at the end."

Millar and Giro d'Italia winner Ivan Basso crashed after a dog darted into the peloton around the 56km mark - before getting up and returning to the race.

Even before his own spill, Cavendish was without the services of one of his top lead-out men, as HTC-Columbia teammate Adam Hansen of Australia fell in an early crash. Team officials said it was not immediately clear what happened, but they suspected a broken left collarbone and said he would go directly to hospital after the stage.

Petacchi clocked 5 hours 9 minutes 38 seconds for the stage, and thrust his index fingers in the air and screamed as he crossed the finish. The 36-year-old Italian is riding his first tour since 2004 - a year after he collected four stage victories.

Mark Renshaw of Australia was second and Norway's Thor Hushovd third. Nearly all riders received the same time as the Italian stage winner. Contador was 44th, Armstrong 55th and Cancellara trailed in 130th place.

Under race rules, if a crash takes place in the bunch within the last three kilometres, all the riders in the main pack are awarded the same time - as long as they cross the finish.

Moldovan champion Alexandr Pliuschin burst out of the pack with about 25km left to catch three breakaway riders who had jumped out very early. He and Belgium's Martin Wynants held off the main bunch until being over taken with 10km to go.

Riders embark on another mostly flat ride today for the second stage, a 201km jaunt from Brussels to Spa.

- AP