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    03 July 2012| last updated at 08:18AM

    CYCLING / TOUR DE FRANCE: Young Sagan shows the way



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    SERAING (Belgium): Rising star Peter Sagan of Slovakia won the first stage of the Tour de France on Sunday ahead of Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland, who retained the overall lead.

        Title contenders Bradley Wiggins of Britain and defending champion Cadel Evans trailed close behind in the pack after the 198-kilometre (123-mile) loop from Liege to suburban Seraing featuring five low-grade climbs.

        The 22-year-old Sagan, who is one of cycling’s most promising riders, placed his hands on his shoulders as he collected his first Tour stage win in a three-man sprint ahead of Cancellara in second and Edvald Boasson Hagen of Norway in third.

        It was a spirited defence of the yellow jersey by the Swiss rider, who many expect to fall behind in the later, mountain stages of the race.   

        The top standings among the leading pre-race contenders didn’t change much, though some speedsters who fared well in Saturday’s brief prologue, lost ground after the first stage.

        RadioShack Nissan rider Cancellara, who won the prologue, leads Sky’s Wiggins in second and France’s Sylvain Chavanel of Omega Pharma-Quickstep in third — with each seven seconds behind.   

        Evans, the Australian leader of the BMC team, trails 17 seconds behind the Swiss leader. He rose to eighth place overall as others slipped back in crash traffic or because of a hilly final climb that split the pack during the last three kilometres.

        That was when the stage turned into a three-man race. Sagan hugged the wheel of Cancellara, doing the hard work of leading into the wind, then whipped around him with less than 150 metres before the finish to win in four hours, 58 minutes, 19 seconds.

        “I am really, really happy,” Sagan said. “I was the only one who could follow (Cancellara), I was tight behind him. I was just happy to stay on his wheel.”

       It was the Liquigas-Cannondale rider’s 13th stage victory this season, after winning in races as diverse as the Tirreno-Adriatico, the Tour of Switzerland and the Tour of California — where he won five of the race’s eight stages.

       Sagan, who said his victory gesture was just “for fun,” is the youngest rider to win a Tour stage since Lance Armstrong won Stage 8 in 1993 at the age of 21 — his first of 22 career stage victories.

       The youngest stage winner of all time is Italy’s Fabio Battesini, who was 19 when he won one in the 1931 Tour.

       The second stage takes the pack on a mostly flat 207.5km jaunt slicing west across Belgium from Vise to Tournai, which could favour a sprint finish. AP

    Liquigas-Cannondale rider Peter Sagan puts his hands on his shoulders after winning the first stage of the Tour de France on Sunday. Reuters pic

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