If the four million people who came to watch the passage of the Tour de France in Britain were excited, so were the hardened cycling sceptics who have seen this race struggle to find its way through trauma and scandal over the past few years.

This afternoon in Canterbury, as the team buses loaded up following the stage finish on Reims Way, and made ready to head to Folkestone and the Eurotunnel, the superlatives kept coming. "Overwhelming, amazing, incredible," they said of the Tour's two day sojourn in south-east England. "Those were the biggest crowds I have ever seen on the Tour."

And the outpouring of roadside affection for British riders, in particular, David Millar, motivated him and his compatriots to ever greater efforts.

Following today's breakaway, Millar, stung by his disappointing ride in Saturday's prologue, will arrive in France wearing the King of the Mountains jersey, a remarkable achievement for a rider best-known for his prowess as a time triallist on flat roads.

But while the 30-year-old had a swagger at the finish, Mark Cavendish was nursing his bruises and his disappointment after crashing heavily shortly before the finish.

The stage had been set for a 'Cav' special; a lung-bursting finish that would take him to the line and ensure a sprint success on home ground. "This is only the first stage," Bob Stapleton, the T-Mobile manager, said. "Cav has a week of sprints to come and he will get it right. This is the Tour de France — these things happen."

Indeed they do. Just ask Eduardo Gonzalo Ramirez of the Agritubel team. The Spaniard crashed, almost within sight of Canary Wharf and ended his Tour in the back of an ambulance. One down, many more to go.