Fabian Cancellara takes opening stage of Tour de France

Swiss rider takes yellow jersey after time-trial while Britain's Bradley Wiggins is third and Lance Armstrong tenth

Times Online

Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland won the opening stage of the Tour de France on Saturday, with seven-time champion Lance Armstrong placing a respectable 10th for the start of his comeback to the sport's biggest event.

Cancellara took 19 minutes, 32 seconds for the 15.5km (9.6-mile) time-trial, in which riders set off one by one along winding and hilly roads of the Mediterranean principality of Monaco.

"I am really proud," Cancellara said. "I did the maximum possible."

A speed specialist who won last month's Tour of Switzerland and the time-trial gold medal at the Beijing Olympics, Cancellara had been seen as a favorite for the opening stage.

The race against the clock offered an early shakeout of the potential title contenders among the 180-rider pack for the three-week race. This 96th Tour takes riders over nearly 3,500km before the July 26 finish in Paris.

Cancellara blew away the field, beating 2007 Tour champion Alberto Contador into second by 18 seconds. Bradley Wiggins, who won gold in Beijing in the individual pursuit, was third, 19 seconds behind.

Indicating his power, Cancellara overtook Giro d'Italia winner Denis Menchov — who left 90 seconds earlier down the start ramp — just metres from the finish line.

Cancellara, of the Saxo Bank team, will wear the overall race leader's yellow jersey for Sunday's second stage — a 187km jaunt across plains from Monaco to Brignoles, France.

Armstrong, who was 40 seconds behind Cancellara, is riding four years after the last of his record seven Tour victories. He said he didn't have any "big illusions" that he'd win Saturday's time-trial.

"I didn't expect to win or to take the jersey," he said. "I didn't expect a super, super performance. Was I focused enough? Yeah, I think so — I was nervous, which is logical with the years away. I didn't feel necessarily comfortable.

"It's been a long time since I've had that emotion of being on the start ramp at the Tour.

Provisional result of the 15.5km time trial first stage of the Tour de France in Monaco on Saturday

1. Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland / Saxo Bank ) 19mins 32sec
2. Alberto Contador (Spain / Astana ) +18"
3. Bradley Wiggins (Britain / Garmin ) +19"
4. Andreas Kloeden (Germany / Astana ) +22"
5. Cadel Evans (Australia / Silence - Lotto ) +23"
6. Levi Leipheimer (U.S. / Astana ) +30"
7. Roman Kreuziger (Czech Republic / Liquigas ) +32"
8. Tony Martin (Germany / Columbia )
9. Vincenzo Nibali (Italy / Liquigas ) +38"
10. Lance Armstrong (U.S. / Astana ) +40"
11. Gustav Larsson (Sweden / Saxo Bank ) +42"
12. Mikel Astarloza (Spain / Euskaltel ) +44"
13. David Zabriskie (U.S. / Garmin ) +48"
14. David Millar (Britain / Garmin )
15. Jerome Coppel (France / Francaise des Jeux ) +52"
16. Sylvain Chavanel (France / Quick-Step ) +56"
17. Christian Vande Velde (U.S. / Garmin ) +58"
18. Andy Schleck (Luxembourg / Saxo Bank ) +1:00"
19. Linus Gerdemann (Germany / Milram ) +1:04"
20. Remi Pauriol (France / Cofidis ) +1:05"
21. Carlos Sastre (Spain / Cervelo ) +1:06"
22. Vladimir Karpets (Russia / Katusha ) +1:08"
23. Alessandro Ballan (Italy / Lampre ) +1:10"
24. Maxime Monfort (Belgium / Columbia ) +1:11"
25. Jurgen Van den Broeck (Belgium / Silence - Lotto )
26. Laurent Lefevre (France / Bbox - Bouygues ) +1:12"
27. Michael Rogers (Australia / Columbia ) +1:13"
28. Nicolas Vogondy (France / Agritubel )
29. Christophe Riblon (France / AG2R ) +1:14"
30. Juan Jose Oroz (Spain / Euskaltel )

Fabian Cancellara's uphill task to keep yellow jersey

Jeremy Whittle in Monaco

Fabian Cancellara, yet again Bradley Wiggins’s bête noire on the opening day of the Tour de France, is not a potential challenger for final victory in Paris. The Swiss may, just as he did in London in 2007, at the last moment have dashed the Londoner’s hopes of snatching his first yellow jersey, but he will fade into the background when the mountains loom large.

bête noire(pronounced /ˌbeɪtˈnwɑr/ or /bɛtˈnwɑr/; French: [bɛtnwaʀ], "darkbeast") is used to refer to an object or abstract idea that isparticularly disliked or avoided.

Bradley Marc Wiggins, CBE(born 28 April 1980) is a Belgian-born British professional track androad bicycle racer currently riding for Garmin-Slipstream. He won threemedals on the track at the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics, and a furthertwo (both gold) at the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics.

Cancellara, winner in Monaco this evening, will relish his spell in the maillot jaune, knowing that it will end when — if not before — the race route climbs into the Pyrenees on Friday. Meanwhile, the first stage of the race did reveal that the contenders for final victory in Paris on July 28 are as predicted — Alberto Contador, Cadel Evans, Andreas Kloden and Levi Leipheimer, all of whom finished close together.

There is a notable absentee, however, and Lance Armstrong, who squeezed into the top ten, 40 seconds slower than Cancellara, summed up his comeback ride in the Tour merely as "not bad". In many ways, after three summers’ absence, that was a fair assessment. The lean and tanned seven-times Tour winner looked in good shape, but he never seemed that comfortable as he climbed out of Monaco. As he admitted afterwards, he was "a little bit all over the place".

In his heyday, Armstrong slammed through each pedal stroke with impressive force, punching out a rhythm that propelled his bike and even the steepest gradients appear flat. Yesterday, the gear changes were more frequent, his tempo more irregular, and his style more wayward.

Even afterwards, surrounded by camera crews, journalists and minders, he looked a little taken aback, batting away boom microphones as they hovered over his head. "I was nervous, but that’s logical," he said. ‘It’s been a long time. It’s almost like a foreign environment. You can’t replicate it in training."

Even so, the Texan hovered near the top of the Tour leader board for most of the afternoon, finally slipping down the classification as the pre-race favourites — including his own team-mates, Kloden and Contador — took to the twisting corniche roads overlooking the Mediterranean.

David Millar, of Great Britain, who remained upright despite flirting with disaster on one tight bend, might have beaten Armstrong had it not been for the back-wheel slide, just three kilometres from the finish, that cost him a few seconds.

Millar, now 14th, is well positioned for Tuesday’s team time-trial stage, a discipline in which his Garmin-Slipstream team has excelled in the past. But with two probable sprint finishes to come before that, in Brignoles on Sunday and La Grande Motte on Monday, all eyes will now be on Mark Cavendish, the renowned sprinter from the Isle of Man.

The stories were taken from Times Online, and the logo from Le Tour de France official website. The copyright belong to their original owners. The authors of the stories, the organizer of le Tour and the Times are not involved with, nor endorse the production of this blog.

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