casper wins stage1, Hincapie in yellow

The unexpected winner of the opening stage, a largely flat 184.5 km affair around Strasbourg, was Frenchman Jimmy Casper.

Johan Bruyneel's Discovery Channel team eased into life-after-Lance on stage one of the 2006 Tour de France with American rider George Hincapie, one of Armstrong's oldest cronies, taking the race by its horns and seizing yellow from bloodied Thor Hushovd.