PLUMELEC, France -- Alejandro Valverde of Spain won the first stage of the Tour de France on Saturday with a ride through flat country, the opening of a three-week race trying to restore its luster after years of doping scandals.

He broke away from the pack at the end of the 123-mile leg from Brest to Plumelec and now has the distinction of wearing the leader's yellow jersey.

Valverde, who rides for the Caisse d'Epargne team and won the Dauphine Libere warmup race last month, was followed by Philippe Gilbert of Belgium and Jerome Pineau of France.

"My first impression is beyond my imagination -- to win the stage and wear the yellow jersey," Valverde said. "The important thing is to have the yellow jersey in Paris."

The 2,175-mile race ends July 27 in the French capital.

The Tour's 95th edition got off to an unsettling start. Valverde said his strategy was to avoid the crashes that often occur in the flat, early stages.

One of the four crashes took down Juan Mauricio Soler, the Colombian who was the Tour's best climber last year. He finished more than two minutes behind Valverde.

France's Herve Duclos-Lassalle of the Cofidis team became the first rider in the 180-man field forced from the race. He crashed and broke his wrist after a rider's food bag got stuck in his front-wheel spokes.

Valverde is among the favorites for the title, along with Australia's Cadel Evans and Russia's Denis Menchov.

Spain's Alberto Contador is not competing, the second straight year the race has begun without a defending champion. His Astana team was banned by organizers after doping infractions by other riders. Floyd Landis was stripped of his 2006 title after testing positive for synthetic testosterone.

Other top names out this year are Kazakhstan's Alexandre Vinokourov, who was removed from the Tour last year for a positive test for a blood transfusion, and Astana rider Levi Leipheimer.

Ivan Basso, the 2006 Giro d'Italia winner and two-time Tour podium finisher, is also absent. The Italian is serving the last few months of a two-year ban he received after acknowledging involvement in the Spanish blood-doping investigation.

--Associated Press