It takes more than a crash with 20km remaining to stop Predictor-Lotto’s Robbie McEwen. In what was nearly guaranteed to be a field sprint, the Aussie sprinter was taken down in a pileup as the nervous peloton approached Canterbury in the final moments of stage 1. For a moment it looked as though McEwen’s hopes of pleasing his Belgian team management by wearing the green points jersey into Ghent, Belgium, on Monday had been dashed.

McEwen landed hard on his right wrist, and in the chaos that ensued, he briefly thought of abandoning the Tour. Instead, McEwen’s teammates rallied around the three-time green jersey winner and delivered him to the front of the peloton, where he did what he does best and trounced the Tour’s top sprinters. McEwen blasted out of the field with 150 meters to go, and won by several bike lengths. McEwen’s celebration was short lived, however, as the immediately attended to his injury.

“The fall itself was just on a small road,” McEwen said. “They were breaking in front of me and almost stopping. I also went hard on the brakes. I almost stopped, but whoever was behind me wasn’t paying attention and just ran straight into the back of me. It flipped me over the handlebars. I actually tried to keep flipping over to land on my feet or land on my back, but my hand was the first thing to hit the ground and then my knee. The first thing I thought was I’d broken my wrist because it wouldn’t move and it was very sore.”

During McEwen’s post-race press conference the Aussie grimaced while cradling and icing his right wrist, and following post-race doping control and media obligations he went to the hospital for an x-ray and examination. McEwen was quick to credit his teammates in the victory.

“[Johan] Van Summeren was standing by me and the other guys were waiting,” McEwen said. “They were just determined to bring me back into the peloton. Even though everything was hurting at that moment, and I was thinking more about stopping than winning the stage, I could see how hard they were riding to bring me back in the bunch. First it was [Dario] Cioni and [Mario] Aerts and Van Summeren, and then it was [Leif] Hoste that brought me back in the peloton. Hoste brought me almost to the front of the bunch, and then I found my own way until I got up to Freddie Rodriguez.”

With Rodriguez as his guide, McEwen found his way behind the lead-out trains of Milram, riding for German veteran Erik Zabel, and Quick Step-Innergetic, riding for Belgian star Tom Boonen. With freelancing sprinters like Thor Hushovd (Crédit Agricole) and Oscar Freire (Rabobank) also in the mix, McEwen waited for the right moment to come off the wheel to take his 12th career stage win, equaling Zabels’ record of highest Tour stage win totals for all active riders. Hushovd finished second, with Boonen in third.

“In the last kilometers, with all the roundabouts and the corners I just had to find my own way,” McEwen said. “I kept moving to the front, trying to be economical and save my energy. I knew the sprint was difficult. It was uphill and there was a bend to the left and you could only see the finish with about 160 meters to go. For me, it was a finish similar to St. Quentin last year. With the speeds low like they were today towards the finish, that’s good for me because I have good acceleration. I saw the board of 200 meters and that’s when I started to move. I came out of the wheels and out into the wind at 150 and that was the perfect moment, and I was strong enough to hold everybody off.”

Asked about returning to the peloton in the final 20 km and then jumping the field to win by an overwhelming margin, McEwen said instincts — and adrenalin — took over.

“When it comes to the sprint like that, in that last kilometer you don’t feel anything any more,” McEwen said. “The adrenalin is flowing and I was just super concentrated on what I had to do, not concentrating on anything else, just doing the right thing at the right time, and positioning myself. During the sprint itself, nothing was hurting except my muscles, which is normal. But 100 meters after the finish everything started to hurt again. But it’s worth that pain to win a stage at the Tour de France.”

When McEwen left the finish at Canterbury and headed for the nearest hospital, the cocksure Aussie rider admitted he was nervous to hear the x-ray result. “It was a great day for me,” he said. “But now I’m starting to get a bit worried for the rest of the Tour.”

Monday's stage, a pancake flat 168.5km ride from Dunkirk to Ghent, is set to be another one for the sprinters although breakaways are highly likely.