Remark: this stage does not take part in the game.
The 192 km first stage ended in a sprint finish won by Mario Cipollini from Italy. Because of a crash 11 km before the finish there were some large differences between the top riders. Jan Ulrich won 58 seconds on Riis and 1:35 on Zulle and Leblanc. G. Talmant dropped out because of the crash.
More detailed stage report by Velonews. More detailed stage result by Nando SportServer.