Frederic Moncassin of France emerged from a crowded sprint to the finish and captured the Tour de France's first stage Sunday. The top of the overall standings remained relatively unchanged.
Moncassin collected his first career Tour de France stage victory by covering the flat, 129.6-mile course around this wind-whipped town southeast of Amsterdam in 5 hours, 1 second.Alex Zulle, last year's overall runner-up, finished in a group of 37 riders credited with the same time as Moncassin and retained the leader's yellow jersey he gained in the prologue. He's trailed closely by five-time defending champion Miguel Indurain, who's in sixth by 12 seconds, and the handful of cyclists given a shot at ending the Spaniard's reign.
The overcast weather and hundreds of thousands of spectators lining the route contributed to a number of crashes. Colombia's Hernan Buenahora crashed with 24.8 miles left and fractured a bone in his left hand, forcing him to retire from the Tour.
Also among those who fell was Djamolidin Abdoujaparov, a top sprinter who's won eight Tour legs in the past. He was able to continue but finished 9:42 minutes behind Moncassin and dropped to 191st place in the overall standings.
"I didn't ride very fast because of the weather," said Moncassin, 27, who rides for the Gan team. "It was also difficult because the public was everywhere in the streets. I didn't know if I could win at the end because I was blocked by the other riders."
He pulled through between fading Dutch rider Jeroen Blijlevens and Italian national champion Mario Cipollini in the final 300 yards of the closing dash.
Cipollini was listed as 37th in the official results, last of the riders credited with the same time as Moncassin. He was penalized for bumping another rider in the final dash.
The cyclists stayed grouped together most of the afternoon, with the lone prolongated breakaway by world amateur champion Danny Nelissen of the Netherlands.
He moved out alone with 11.2 miles left and built a lead of as many as 23 seconds before the field caught him 3.1 miles from the finish.
Indurain, leader of the Banesto team, is attempting to become the first rider to win six Tours. Frenchmen Bernard Hinault and Jacques Anquetil and Belgian Eddy Merckx each won five, but not consecutively, as Indurain has.
Other contenders ahead of "Big Mig" so far are 1994 Giro d'Italia winner Yevgeny Berzin, second overall and three seconds back of Zulle; world road race champion Abraham Olano, and Bjarne Riis, third in the Tour a year ago.
They all were credited Sunday with the same time as Moncassin, who jumped to fourth overall thanks to the stage winner's time bonus.
World No. 1 Laurent Jalabert, France's top hope for its first Tour victory since Hinault 11 years ago, was in the lead pack and is seventh overall, while Tony Rominger, the 1993 Tour runner-up, was 39th Sunday, losing nine seconds to slide to ninth place.
Lance Armstrong of the United States, the 1993 world road race champion, was 154th Sunday, 34 seconds off the pace. He stands 53rd overall.
Monday's second stage is another relatively flat trek of 153.5 miles, starting in Den Bosch and taking the riders through Belgium into France.
This year's Tour will cover 2,418 miles through France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and Spain - where it passes near Indurain's Pamplona home to mark his 32nd birthday.