McEwen sprints to Tour opener win

CANTERBURY, England -- Australian Robbie McEwen shrugged off a mid-race crash to score a stunning victory on the opening stage of the Tour de France in Canterbury on Sunday.

McEwen needed the help of his Predictor-Lotto teammates to get back to a fast-moving bunch and popped up in typical style in the final kilometer to pip the other sprinting big guns.

It was the 12th stage win of the 35-year-old McEwen's Tour de France career and all the more remarkable because he was hampered by a right wrist injury.

"This is definitely one of the best ever. After the crash I hurt myself -- hurt my wrist -- but the boys brought me back," McEwen said of his squad. "I still can't believe I won this stage."

Thor Hushovd of Norway and former world champion Tom Boonen of Belgium were relegated to the minor places after the 203 kilometers through the Kent countryside from London.

Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland from the CSC team retains the overall race leaders yellow jersey following his victory in the opening prologue in London on Saturday.

Britain's David Millar gave the home crowd some cheer by getting away in an early breakaway and claiming enough points on the scoring climbs to take the polka dot jersey of the King of the Mountains leader.

The bonus time he gained on the way also lifted the Saunier Duval rider into third in the overall classification behind Cancellara and Andreas Kloden of the Astana team.

"I just want to say thank you to the British public for the support they've given us," said Millar.

"I just rode out of my skin today and that was a thank you to everybody for coming out, that was amazing."

Millar's heroics in a 165-km breakaway compensated in part for the mechanical misfortune which dashed the hopes of another home rider, Mark Cavendish of the T-Mobile team.

He was expected to contest the bunch sprint but after being forced to change bikes inside the final 20k could not rejoin the fast-moving peloton on the run-in to Canterbury.

The second stage of the Tour takes the riders from the French port of Dunkirk to Ghent in Belgium and again is expected to favor the sprinters. E-mail to a friend