Cancellara wins Tour de France prologue
Swiss world time-trial champion Fabian Cancellara has stormed to victory in the prologue of the Tour de France, which took place in the British capital, London.
The rider, who also won the Tour prologue in 2004, clocked eight minutes, 50 seconds for the 7.9-kilometre time trial which started at Trafalgar Square and ended in The Mall.
Germany’s Andreas Kloeden was second in Saturday’s race, 13 seconds behind, and United States cyclist George Hincapie was third, 23 seconds off the leader’s pace.
“I am really happy, that’s for sure,” said Cancellara, who will wear the leader’s yellow jersey for Sunday’s first stage from London to Canterbury. “I will do the maximum to defend it.”
On Sunday, Cancellara retained the yellow jersey, despite the first race being won by Australian Robbie McEwen.
Cancellara’s victory will lift his Team CSC. Its sporting director, Bjarne Riis, announced on Thursday that he would not be attending the Tour.
In May Riis admitted he use banned performance enhancer EPO on way to winning the Tour in 1996.
“What’s really hard is when we saw that he’s not with us on the Tour, but everybody’s holding up,” Cancellara said of Riis.
“There are a lot of problems in cycling, but I want to look to the future,” he added. “And if you keep looking back at the past, of course, it’s hard.”
Doping allegations, scandals and admissions have taken a toll this year on cycling, a sport that has been linked to widespread use of banned performance enhancers for decades.
The 2006 winner, American Floyd Landis, is not competing after testing positive for synthetic testosterone after his dramatic victory in the 17th stage last year.
Lost luggage
Cancellara, who is 26 years old, also had to overcome another hurdle – his luggage went missing at London’s Heathrow airport.
“But I’ve got the yellow jersey, it’s what matters,” said Cancellara.
Tour organisers estimated that around one million people followed the race through the streets of London.
As it was two years to the day after 52 London commuters were killed in terrorist attacks on three underground trains and a bus, around 5,000 police officers were deployed along the course.
Cancellara, a pure time-trialer, is not expected to compete for the overall title in the three-week race.
Sunday’s first stage took riders on a 203-kilometre trek from London to Canterbury.
swissinfo with agencies
Cancellara was born in Bern in 1981, and became a professional road bicycle racer in 2001.
His career highlights include the under-23 championship individual time trial in 1999, and the Paris-Roubaix race in 2006.
He also won the prologue at the 2004 Tour de France and clinched four titles at Switzerland’s national time trial championships since 2002.
Cancellara joined Team CSC earlier this year after the Fassa Bortolo team was discontinued last winter.
Running from Saturday, July 7 to Sunday, July 29 2007, the 94th Tour de France will be made up of a prologue and 20 stages and will cover a total distance of 3,550 kilometres.
These 20 stages have the following profiles: 11 flat stages, 6 mountain stages, 1 medium mountain stage, 2 individual time-trial stages.
Overall race favourites include Andreas Kloeden, his teammate Alexandre Vinokourov of Kazakhstan, US rider Levi Leipheimer, Cadel Evans of Australia, Denis Menchov of Russia, Christophe Moreau of France and Spanish riders Alejandro Valverde, Oscar Pereiro and Carlos Sastre.
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