Simon opens Tour do Rio with stage win

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Edgurdo Simon (Padaria Real / Caloi / CEU Azul / Alimentos) won the opening stage of the 2011 Tour do Rio, a 149 kilometre stage down the coastline from Rio de Janeiro to Angra dos Reis. The Argentinean triumphed in a bunch sprint in a time of 3:12:25, ahead of Rafael Andriato (Petroli Firenze), Marco Coldan (Trevigiani) and Jaime Castaneda (EPM – UNE). In a difficult run to the finish, the fast men of the peloton were forced to cool their jets one hundred metres from the finish line due to a speed bump.

Simon made the trip from his home to Sao Paulo in the north of Brazil earlier this month to get the best preparation possible for the Tour do Rio.

"The roads weren't very good because they were unpredictable – it was complicated," he admitted. "But the view of the sea and the coast made up for it.

Declaring his intentions for the rest of the week, Simon explained it was important to begin the race on the right note. "It was very important for me to win today because I'm fighting for overall."

Andriato meantime was rueing the role the speed bump played in his run to the finish, saying that it had cost him the win, with his cleats coming away from his pedals. The Brazilian intends to make amends on Thursday.

"The next stage will be even better for me because of the mix between mountains and the flat," he told reporters at the finish. "The third and the fourth stage will decide overall. I'm working for the team here and I owe them for helping me today."

On a draining day in the Brazilian winter heat, where temperatures pushed the 30 degree mark and the peloton was forced to battle roads that varied in their condition, 18 riders failed to make the time cut, set at a "generous" 15 percent by race organisers.

Several riders mentioned following the finish that the flat parcours promised in the race manual had not eventuated, especially in the final half of the stage, one commenting to Cyclingnews that "there's no way that's flat."

A group of 11 riders formed a breakaway around 40 kilometres from the finish on the base of the one and only mountain prime of the day – with the earlier ascent forcing an already split peloton to fray even more. Romanian rider Andrei Nechita (Trevigiani) claimed the maximum KOM points of offer, with Brazilian pair Renato Seabra (Funvic/Marcondes Cesar/Pindamonhangaba) and Antonio Nascimento (Clube DataRo de Ciclismo/Foz do Iguaçu) next best – all three riders finished the day in the lead group across the finish line.

The following bunch of 25 riders came in two minutes after Simon had thrown his hands in the air in celebration, including three members of the highly-fancied American squad, Jamis-Sutter Home, with Anibal Borrajo, Tyler Wren and James Driscoll all arriving safely.

The same couldn't be said for teammate Nicolas Frey who crashed in the morning's neutral zone following a collision with a cat's eye on the edge of the road, forcing him to abandon the race. Six other riders were forced to drop out of the often punishing stage.

Breaks had threatened for much of the race, with groups of between two and five riders getting away but never more than around 50 seconds due to constant skirmishes at the front of the chase group. Wren said it was only a matter of time before an escape group stuck.

"I think everyone in the whole race knew it was going to be a break today, there was no prologue and no time-trial," he told Cyclingnews at the finish. "So it was just kinda like the roulette nature of these breaks – you can't cover all of them; we were already short-handed because we lost a guy and we were saving a sprinter, whereas some teams finished with seven or eight guys. But there's plenty of fight left."

EPM – UNE dominated the day, with all riders finishing in the top 30. Time bonuses will see Simon take a seven second lead into Thursday's second stage.

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