2013 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11

The 2013 Tour de France was the 100th Tour de France. It ran from 29 June 2013 to 21 July 2013, starting in the city of Porto-Vecchio in Corsica, with the island hosting the first three stages. Corsica was the only Metropolitan region, and Corse-du-Sud and Haute-Corse were the only Metropolitan departments, through which the Tour had never previously passed and the organisers wanted to combine the 100th edition of the Tour with the Tour's first ever visit to Corsica.

The opening stage was a standard road stage rather than the more usual Individual time trial or "Prologue".

To accommodate the tour entourage during their stay in Corsica, the organisers chartered the Mega Smeralda cruiseferry to house members of the organisation, media and others who work on the Tour and to host press conferences, although the riders stayed in hotels in and around Porto-Vecchio.

The first stage of the race was a relatively flat stage on the east coast of Corsica and was expected to end with a sprint finish, with Mark Cavendish looking to claim the sprint and with it the maillot jaune for the overall race leader.

The Tour started out inauspiciously for top favourite Chris Froome of Team Sky, as he crashed in the neutralised area before the true beginning of the stage although he was not hurt. Once the flag came down to signal the true beginning of the stage, five riders immediately distinguished themselves as the day's principal escape group – Jérôme Cousin of Team Europcar, Euskaltel–Euskadi's Juan José Lobato, Belkin Pro Cycling rider Lars Boom, Juan Antonio Flecha representing Vacansoleil–DCM, and Cyril Lemoine from Sojasun. The peloton did not allow them very much lead, as the mostly Omega Pharma–Quick-Step-paced main field kept the time gap between two and three minutes for the majority of the stage. The fourth-category Cote de Sotta came at the 45 km (28.0 mi) mark in the stage, the only climb on the day's parcours. This meant that the first rider, from the breakaway, over the line would be the first holder of the polka-dot jersey. It was Lobato who crossed first, beating out Cousin and Boom, and Lobato pulled on the climber's jersey at day's end.

...
Wikipedia