Most people who know me as a cycling fan also know that I don’t like Robbie McEwen. (Who the hell names their poor, defenseless kid Ewan McEwen, for god’s sake?) But even I have to give him props every so often. While we weren’t privy to any video coverage of the first stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico today, it’s clear from the names of the five guys McEwen beat today that he’s a sprinter to be reckoned with:

1 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Predictor-Lotto
2 Oscar Freire (Spa) Rabobank
3 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Crédit Agricole
4 Bernhard Eisel (Aut) T-Mobile
5 Stuart O’Grady (Aus) Team CSC
6 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Milram

Wow. Talk about a who’s who of sprinting giants in the sport today. There’s not much at the moment, but here’s where there will eventually be more information about the stage from CyclingNews. There’s a bit more at EuroSport, including the news that Alessandro Ballan was in a crash and may have a broken collarbone.