The Tour's second stage produced no real surprises. There were a couple of wrecks, but no one was seriously hurt and all the riders made it back into the peloton. There was a breakaway of four riders, but the peloton reeled them back in with a few kilometers to go and the finish was the province of the race's sprinters.
Englishman Mark Cavendish (pictured) of USA's team Columbia won the sprint by about 4 yards (that's a lot in a sprint finish). Unless he gets ill or hurt, Cavendish has to be the favorite to win the sprinter's green jersey this year. American Tyler Farrar of USA's team Garmin-Slipstream finished second. Since the peloton finished as a group right behind the sprinters, everyone got the same time and there was no change in the overall standings.
Stage 3 on Monday will probably be much the same as stage 2. There will be at least one breakaway, but the peloton is unlikely to let them stay away. It will probably be another day for the sprinters to shine. The course from Marseille to la Grande-Motte is about 122 miles and has only a couple of catagorey 4 hills.
The first real shake-up in the standings will probably come with the team time trial on Tuesday. Those on strong teams like Astana, Columbia, Garmin, Saxo Bank and Liquigas will have a chance to really move up in the standings, while those on weaker teams could lose a significant amount of time. Here are the current standings:
YELLOW JERSEY (OVERALL STANDINGS)
1. Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank)
2. Alberto Contador (Astana)..........0.18
3. Bradley Wiggins (Garmin)..........0.19
4. Andreas Kloden (Astana)..........0.22
5. Cadel Evans (Lotto)..........0.23
6. Levi Leipheimer (Astana)..........0.30
7. Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas)...........0.32
8. Tony Martin (Columbia)..........0.33
9. Vincenzo Nabili (Liquigas)..........0.37
10. Lance Armstrong (Astana)..........0.40
GREEN JERSEY (SPRINTERS)
1. Mark Cavendish (Columbia)..........35 pts
2. Tyler Farrar (Garmin)..........30 pts
3. Romain Felliu (Agritubel)...........26 pts
4. Thor Hushovd (Cervelo)..........24 pts
5. Yukiya Arashiro (Bouyges)..........22 pts
POLKA DOT JERSEY (CLIMBERS)
1. Jussi Veikkanen (Francaise)..........9 pts
2. Tony Martin (Columbia)..........6 pts
3. Cyril Dessel (AG2R)..........5 pts
TEAM STANDINGS
1. Astana
2. Saxo Bank..........0.31
3. Garmin..........0.44
4. Liquigas..........1.25
5. Columbia..........1.46
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