Petacchi wins stage after evading crash

GIRO sprint king Alessandro Petacchi humbled his rivals to win the 168-km first stage of the Tour de France in a mass sprint tarnished by a spectacular crash near the finish line yesterday.

Winner of six stages in the Giro, Petacchi scored his inaugural Tour win at the expense of other top sprinters, Australian Robbie McEwen and German Erik Zabel.

McEwen and Zabel were the last two winners of the Tour points classification and the Italian can be considered a favourite for the green jersey this season.