Fabian Cancellara wins Tour de France prologue
There was a British name near the top of the times after the prologue of the 2010 Tour de France.
In fact there were two of them, but neither was the one who is considered to be the nation’s big hope for the race. David Millar and Geraint Thomas delivered inspired rides to finish third and fifth respectively behind Fabian Cancellara, of Switzerland, who won his fourth Tour de France prologue.
Cancellara (pictured), the Saxo Bank rider, was in powerful form as he claimed the yellow jersey in 10 minutes exactly over the 8.9km course in Rotterdam, leading Tony Martin of Germany by 10 seconds. Millar was 20 seconds back while Thomas was 23 seconds adrift. Lance Armstrong, the seven-time winner who was beginning his final Tour, split the Britons in fourth while Alberto Contador, the defending champion, finished sixth.
Bradley Wiggins, the British rider tipped as Britain’s best chance this year, made a safe if unspectacular start at 56 seconds behind in 77th place after his performance was compromised when he was hit by a downpour as he set out.
Wiggins, who finished fourth on last year's Tour, suffered what was something of a tactical blunder by Team Sky. He was sent out with the earlier starters by his team in the hope that he could miss the rain that had been forecast.
However, the strategists got their calculations wrong and Wiggins hit the worst patch of the weather.
But, despite finding himself off the pace, he told the Team Sky website: "I didn't want to chance anything. I said all along that the prologue wasn't the be all and end all for me, so I'm just pleased to have got round in one piece. I felt good and did what I needed to do.
"It was wet, but it was also wet for most people," Wiggins said. "Going in a straight line I felt as good as I needed to be. I couldn't push it to the limit in the corners because I couldn't take the risk of losing maybe three or four minutes in a crash.
"It was about getting round, going through the process, and dialling into the effort. The prologue is so insignificant in the three weeks; you can lose seconds here, but [the time differences are] going to be minutes in three weeks' time.”
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