Double Tour de France champion Alberto Contador endured a painful start to the Criterium International on Saturday when he suffered a mysterious allergic attack.

The Spaniard, whose duel with former team-mate Lance Armstrong was expected to dominate the event, finished the first stage in 22nd place, 1min 21sec behind the winner, France’s BBox rider Pierrick Fedrigo.

Armstrong was even further back, finishing the day in 50th place.

“Alberto had no feelings three kilometers from the finish because of his allergy problem. It was nothing to do with his legs, he had difficulty breathing,” explained Yvon Sanquer, the sporting director of Contador’s Astana team.

The Spaniard had been expected to mount a challenge in the dying stages of the opening 175.5km run, but the allergy prevented him from being a contender in the final climb, the Col de l’Ospedale.

“We will see how he recovers (before Sunday’s time trial). He is a little disappointed because it’s never easy when you prepare things correctly and you have ambitions to find yourself in a difficulty like this,” added Sanquer.

“We will have to look at this peacefully.”

Seven-time Tour de France winner Armstrong finished the opening stage 5min 01sec behind Fedrigo overall.

“It was a technical and tactical climb with the wind,” said the American.

“There were a lot of surprises but RadioShack (Armstrong’s team) can be very happy with the riders we have up front.”

Fedrigo finished 15sec ahead of Armstrong’s Portuguese team-mate Tiago Machado, while Olympic champion Samuel Sanchez was third.

“I am happy for Tiago and it’s a good result for the team,” added Armstrong. “I have not had a lot of racing behind me. I’m not disappointed, it’s only March. If we had still been talking about my physical condition in July, then I would be disappointed.”

1. Pierrick Fedrigo (FRA/BBox) 5hr 19min 45.2sec, 2. Tiago Machado (POR) at 11, 3. Samuel Sanchez (ESP) 15, 4. Cadel Evans (AUS) 15, 5. David Moncoutie
(FRA) 15, 6. Matteo Carrara (ITA) 15, 7. Michael Rogers (AUS) 15, 8.
Christopher Horner (USA) 15, 9. Ben Hermans (BEL) 15, 10. David Garcia Lopez
(ESP) 15, 11. Maxime Monfort (BEL) 19, 12. Benat Intxausti (ESP) 19, 13.
Daniel Martin (IRL) 24, 14. David Millar (GBR) 24, 15. Christophe Moreau (FRA) 24, 16. Juan Mauricio Soler Hernandez (COL) 31, 17. Thomas Voeckler (FRA) 38, 18. David Le Lay (FRA) 45, 19. Cyril Gautier (FRA) 45, 20. Rigoberto Uran
(COL) 45

Selected:
23. Alberto Contador (ESP) 1:13, 33. Alexandre Vinokourov (KAZ) 1:52, 49.
Yaroslav Popovych (UKR) 4:51, 50. Lance Armstrong (USA) 4:51