Fabian Cancellara wins Prologue in TDF

He may have been denied a Prologue win and the yellow jersey by an inspired Fabian Cancellara, but Bradley Wiggins still made a nigh-on perfect start to his Tour de France campaign in Liège.

Taking second place was a fine ride in its own right but more importantly Wiggins and Team Sky will be spared the stress of defending the yellow jersey and can concentrate on keeping Wiggins out of trouble - he crashed out on stage seven last year, breaking his collar bone when involved in what appeared to be an innocuous shunt.

When Cancellara is in this kind of form nobody can live with him in a such a quick-fire shoot-out, indeed this is the fourth Tour de France Prologue the Swiss rider has won. Disrupted by shoulder surgery in the spring, Cancellara finished a full seven seconds ahead of Wiggins and is clearly back to prime form, which augers well for his Olympic campaign in both the road race and time-trial.

Wiggins was the best of the rest behind him and nicked a few valuable seconds on the those who are expected to challenge for the overall title he covets - Denis Menchov finished six seconds back and Cadel Evans ten.

Not massive gains for Wiggins, but so much better than two years ago, when he suffered in the rain and wind and finished a disconsolate 77th in the Prologue. This time he is on the front foot from the off, right in the mix.

“I’m really happy, it’s the perfect start,” said a delighted Wiggins afterwards. “I was really calm, really relaxed. I felt fantastic out there, I didn’t take any major risks, I concentrated and it was everything we have been training for.

“I did say to the team last night that there was one man who could beat me tomorrow and that was Fabian, he is the king of these Prologues, the best in the world without a doubt.”

Wiggins has been racing flat out every time he swings a leg over a bike for 12 months now and was true to his pre-race promise of aiming for the stage win yesterday. For a while it looked like he was poised to become only the fifth British rider to wear the yellow jersey - Tom Simpson, Sean Yates, Chris Boardman and David Millar being the others.

With all the endurance and climbing work he has been doing, and the loss of power that comes with the consequent loss of weight, Wiggins takes longer to hit top speed these days and although clearly working hard was only tenth at the intermediate check point on the 6.4km course.

Thereafter he was in the groove and as the road widened and the course flattened out, he started to claw back the time until he flashed through the finish line

in 7 min 20.51 seconds. The other bonus from yesterday is that, spared from the necessity of defending yellow, Team Sky will also be able to work, as much as their limited “sprint train” is able, for Mark Cavendish in the forthcoming days, which present a number of opportunities.

Cavendish has shed 8lb in the last month, and will be keen to test his new-found form over the rolling terrain, having worked hard on that in recent months with the Olympic road race in mind. There are also a number of flatter finishes here which he will expect to contest, even though this year he might only have Edvald Boasson Hagen and Bernie Eisel working for him at the death.

Today’s 198km southern loop from Liège to Seraing finishes with a sharp 2.4km drag, with the gradient averaging just under five per cent, and looks more suited to Boasson Hagen or the in-form Peter Sagan than Cavendish, but tomorrow’s flat run from Visé to Tournai looks prime territory for the Manxman, as do the stages from Rouen to Saint-Quentin on Thursday and Épernay to Metz on Friday.

It is Tuesday’s stage three, however, from Orchies to Boulogne, with a roller coaster run-in featuring four short sharp Category Four ramps and two Category Three climbs in the final 65km that really grabs the attention.

Objectively this is a day for the classics riders, but Cavendish is keen expand his range and at least be in the mix. The effort required in that final complex run-in is comparable to the nine ascents of Box Hill that Cavendish will have to negotiate if he is to challenge for the Olympic title, albeit there will still be a chance to recoup some lost ground during the run-in through Surrey to The Mall.

“Normally on the Tour there will be maybe seven sprint stages you would hope to be involved in, but this year I am hoping to add another couple of stages to that,” Cavendish said. “The weight loss is for a reason, the Olympics is my main objective, and we will see if it works. My power has dropped a little bit with the loss of weight and it could make the proper sprint stages more difficult, but this way I am hoping to be involved in a few more sprints.”

Source: Daily Telegraph

Nando put spoilers up for this you ruined it i was gonna watch it in the morning

So who are the genuine threats to Wiggins & Evans? I know about Van den Broeck and hopefully he can stay injury free this tour unlike last year. I just can't see to get that excited about this years tour with Contador & Schleck both missing, there duels on the mountains were truly epic over the last few years and were iconic moments.

If Wiggins does win the tour, do you think it will always be remembered for Contador & Schleck being absent, similar to that of Murray at Wimbledon and the fact he could win it due to Nadal's absence. I never like seeing someone win an event when someone is missing of huge importance but I guess that's sport.

a) I can't stand people whining about spoilers

b) Menchov rode great today - maybe he can be a good challenge.

c) Sagan will win today, despite taking a sauna halfway through, and then stopping for a game of swingball with Daniela Hantuchova.

John wrote:So who are the genuine threats to Wiggins & Evans? I know about Van den Broeck and hopefully he can stay injury free this tour unlike last year. I just can't see to get that excited about this years tour with Contador & Schleck both missing, there duels on the mountains were truly epic over the last few years and were iconic moments.

If Wiggins does win the tour, do you think it will always be remembered for Contador & Schleck being absent, similar to that of Murray at Wimbledon and the fact he could win it due to Nadal's absence. I never like seeing someone win an event when someone is missing of huge importance but I guess that's sport.

For me this year Schleck (Andy) wouldn't win even if he was racing. I just think his time trialling although improved would not be good enough to keep up with Wiggins and Evans, and with the time he would lose to those two I just don't think he would make it up on the limited summit finishes (3 I think).

Contador would have won this year if fit and racing for sure

Contador is the best, but I'm not sure we've ever seen him ride a GT without dodgy doc assistance.

Must admit Andy Schleck actually would never have won this year anyway. The descents and over 100k of time-trialing would of killed him and the fact Frank lost 31 seconds to Wiggins in a 7 minute time prologue tells you everything you need to know about the Schlecks. Everything this year is pointing to a Wiggins win, I think Evans is not in a good a shape as last year and maybe Menchov could be a force once again.

Contador is back for the Vuelta isnt he?