Poland’s Lech Piasecki Takes Overall Lead in 74th Tour de France
Nico Verhoeven of the Netherlands won the opening stage of the 74th Tour de France Thursday, but Lech Piasecki of Poland took the overall lead because of a faster time in the prologue.
Piasecki, 25, was the second fastest in Wednesday’s individual time trial and finished sixth in Thursday’s 63-mile stage. Verhoeven took the stage by edging Giovanni Bottoia of Italy in a close sprint, covering the distance in 2 hours 11.33 minutes.
The first stage was followed by the 24-mile team time trial, which left Piasecki in the overall lead when his Del Tongo-Colnago team finished in the second-best time.
The team trial went to Carrera, and its eight-second victory brought one of the top favorites, Stephen Roche of Ireland, to third place overall.
Piasecki leads with a combined time of 3 hours 3.40 minutes, followed by Italy’s Guido Bontempi, 13 seconds behind.
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