Today saw the start of the Tour de France campaign for 2010, which promises to be a rivetting spectacle, with 2200 miles of terrain to cover over the next three weeks, taking in the Netherlands, Belgium and of course France. The first day was the so-called Prologue, with Stage 1 getting underway on Sunday.
The Tour de France Prologue today was an 8.9 km time trial starting and finishing in the center of Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, as started out with wet weather. Riders starting later sought to gain an advantage as the road conditions dried during the trial. Some of the pundits had their money on either Fabian Cancellara or Bradley Wiggins to win this pre-race stage, and they were half right, with Cancellara of Team Saxo Bank (SAX) winning handsomely by ten clear seconds. He was one of the last riders to come home, and gained the benefits both of being a time trial specialist and of the rapidly improving weather conditions. Wiggins underperformed having gone out into the trial earlier and suffering from being a little tentative on wet roads, coming home in a very disappointing 77th place, 56 seconds adrift.
The Overall Points Standing after Prologue look like this:
1. Cancellara (SAX) 15 pts
2. Martin (THR) 12 pts
3. Millar (GRM) 10 pts
4. Armstrong (RSH) 8 pts
5. Thomas (SKY) 6 pts
6. Contador (AST) 5 pts
7. Farrar (GRM) 4 pts
8. Leipheimer (RSH) 3 pts
9. Boasson Hagen (SKY) 2 pts
10. Gerdemann (MRM) 1 pts
(Photo: Fabian Cancellara, by Fliedermaus, reproduced under Creative Commons licence).
Of course, after this very short preliminary round, Cancellara also holds the Green Jersey, but as far as cycling shirts are concerned, the Yellow Jersey beats that, so he’ll be riding in yellow for Stage 1 tomorrow.
Today also saw the scene set in the match between rivals Lance Armstrong of Team Radio Shack (RSH) and Alberto Contador of Astana (AST) in what might be Armstrong’s last Tour before retirement; you’d never guess that from his performance today with a tidy fourth place.
The other surprise for today was the excellent showing of Sky Pro Cycling’s (SKY) Geraint Thomas with a very respectable fifth placing, and the man separating Armstrong and Contador. That provides him with the White Jersey as points leader in the Youth competition of the Tour.
So things are hotting up for tomorrow’s Stage 1, which is one of the longest stages of the Tour, taking the riders out of the Netherlands and into Belgium, finishing at Brussels. More on that tomorrow.
