Prologue -- June 30: Liège to Liège, 6.1 km (4.0 mi)
Fabian Cancellara doing what he does best and winning a prologue. Photograph: Bettini
Thank goodness for an application such as Twitter, for without it we wouldn't realise that Fabian Cancellara actually has a personality, leaving us to understandable assume that the big Swissman is in fact a highly sophisticated cybernetic robot, sent back through time to destroy prologue courses. I mean, who really did I think I was kidding by seriously predicting anyone other than Cancellara to win today?
It was in Liege, the city he won his first ever prologue, it was a short distance, it was a flat stage and it was the Tour de France so the form book meant nothing. To put it in perspective, if you take his margin of victory of seven seconds and add seven more seconds after second place it would take you right down to Philippe Gilbert in ninth. That's how far ahead he was.
I tipped my hat in the direction of Peter Sagan, but he lost the most of his time when he had to perform a mighty save on what would have been a mighty crash on one of the two roundabouts, finishing 24 seconds behind Cancellara. Another who might have been on the shortlist to win today was Tony Martin, but the German picked up a puncture which required a bike change, ruining any hopes of the win though he still finished just 23 seconds back and on the same time as Mark Cavendish.
The course itself was so short that there was never any chance that any big name would lose any major time and so it proved to be. Bradley Wiggins was the unofficial winner of the 'Anyone-not-named-Cancellara-prologue' with his main rival Cadel Evans just a few seconds back and likewise with Canadian, Ryder Hesjedal.
Uneventful really if truth be told as it was always likely to be with Cancellara involved though that didn't make watching his performance any less impressive. Still, it was the opening day of the Tour and regardless of how the race itself went, it was like being a kid of Christmas but knowing that the party is going to last for another three weeks.
***
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I thought about my wife, the baby that’s coming, about team that’s given me help, and I’m proud of having done the work I should have done.” -- Fabian Cancellara didn't give much thought to winning, for that was just a given.
***
FAKE TWEET OF THE DAY
@f_cancellara After finishing my warm-up I was informed my time would count officially. #EasyPeasy
***
PROLOGUE RESULT (AND GC)
1. Fabian Cancellara (Swi) RadioShack-Nissan in 7-13
2. Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky at 7 secs
3. Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Omega Pharma-QuickStep at 7 secs
4. Tejay Van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing at 10 secs
5. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky at 11 secs
6. Brett Lancaster (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge at 11 secs
7. Patrick Gretsch (Ger) Argos-Shimano at 12 secs
8. Denis Menchov (Rus) Katusha at 13 secs
9. Philippe Gilbert (Bel) BMC Racing at 13 secs
10. Andriy Grivko (Ukr) Astana at 15 secs
Other
11. Chris Froome (GBr) Sky at 16 secs
13. Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing at 17 secs
14. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale at 18 secs
15. Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin-Sharp at 18 secs
16. David Millar (GBr) Garmin-Sharp at 18 secs
17. Steve Cummings (GBr) BMC Racing at 18 secs
41. Mark Cavendish (GBr) Sky at 23 secs
55. Daniel Martin (Irl) Garmin-Sharp at 24 secs
56. Nicolas Roche (Irl) Ag2r-La Mondiale at 25 secs
65. Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank at 26 secs
136. Frank Schleck (Lux) RadioShack-Nissan at 38 secs
