Tour 1 :Ruben Perez in the break

The Tour de France 2008 didn't start with a proloque but with a normal stage.A lot of people said it would become one for the sprinters, but it were the men for the general rank who finished it. The first break of the day was immediately the right one and it contained Ruben Perez together with Voeckler, Arrieta, Lequatre, Schröder, De La Fuente, Auge and Jegou. In the break Ruben took some points for the green jersey but it wasn't enough to get the jersey. With 7 km to go all the escapers were caught again and it could become a thrilling end. First Feillu went, but he was caught by Schumacher, who was then caught by Kirchen. It looked like the man from Luxemburg would take the victory but then Valverde outsprinted him. He won the stage and took the first yellow jersey. In the peloton ther were some breaks so some favourites only lost one second, some seven. The three big guns from Euskaltel all lost seven. Samuel became 19th, Mikel 24th, Haimar 47th.

Results
1 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 4.36.07 (42.91 km/h)
2 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Française des Jeux +0.01
3 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Bouygues Telecom
...
19. Samuel Sanchez +0:07
24. Mikel Astarloza +0:07
42. Egoi Martinez +0:07
47. Haimar Zubeldia +0:07
48. Gorka Verdugo +0:18
74. Amets Txurruka +0:39
106. Ruben Perez +1:12
126. Iñaki Isasi +2:00
154. Juan Jose Oroz +2:00