In 2009, Radek Havrda had outclassed all his opponents, including the great Robert Sorlie to win his first Grande Odyssée Savoie Mont Blanc. He could not do better than second place in 2010 behind an imperial Emil Inauen. In 2011, he was still in the lead at the start of the last stage before cracking to the benefit of the final winner Milos Gonda. In 2012, once again, he will be the man to beat, he has prooved it today in a striking way.

Radek checks his GPS at the finish line.

15 minutes and 32 seconds, it's the advance he dug in this first stage at the end of the 62 km. If nothing is yet played, and Radek knows it better than anyone else, the race is still long, he has clearly showed his skills and goal. By building this important advance, he forces his opponents to react and tomorrow, no doubt, we'll know more on a stage, again very demanding, with the longest climb in the history of the race.

The heavy snow and temperatures hovering around zero made the track fairly smooth and punchy. A trail particularly physical and demanding the kind Radek Havrda is fond of. He confirmed this at the end of the stage, the 2009 champion is afraid of the hard and fast trails, which might better suit the 2011 champion, the slovak Milos Gonda.

Milos Gonda is all smiles at the finish.

Other lessons from this first day is that Jiri Vondrak is a serious candidate to the podium, but he can be a tone below the first two and he will probably be wary of Jean-Philippe Pontier who will be keen to climb on the podium again and could take advantage of the long stages of the last part of the race. Salva Luque who left with eight dogs only when the others took 9 or 10 had a very nice stage. But the Spanish's raid has not been an easy one since it broke and lost the sole of a ski of his sled and ended the last twenty kilometers on a runner.

Now it will be tomorrow to see if the trends of the day will be confirmed or not. This second stage of 78 km will allow us to check which teams will succeed in combining strength and endurance. The long run will show who could take advantage of the last four stages of the race which will last 80 km each. Well, the race is still long, and once again it will be exciting.

Photos Clotilde Richalet