Cancellara turns rainbow into yellow

For the third time in six years, Fabian Cancellara has taken the first yellow jersey of the Tour de France. The reigning world time trial champion is the first rider born in the 1980s to win a stage of the Tour (as he did in Liege at the start of the 2004 edition), he has since become a dominant force in cycling - winning world championships (three times), the Olympic gold medal (in Beijing) and numerous Classics. In Rotterdam he was just too good and the others didn’t stand a chance against this powerhouse from Saxo Bank.

Tony Martin endured an anxious wait after being the 11th of 197 riders to start the prologue in Rotterdam and setting the early standard. His time of 10’10" would last until the third-last rider to start stormed across the line. Cancellara took the yellow and green jerseys but the German earned a good consolation: the white jersey as best young rider.

The 2010 Tour de France officially began at 4.15pm with a prologue on the streets of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Only an hour before the beginning of this 8.9km time trial, there was a light rain shower but it was only enough to make the road damp for the flat route around the city.

The first rider to begin the prologue of the 97th edition of the Tour was Spaniard Ivan Mayoz of the Footon-Servetto team; his time of 11’10" was quickly eclipsed as the early starters had the benefit of relatively dry roads. Rain fell about an hour before the start of the time trial and the road was slightly damp but it didn’t hinder the German TT champion Tony Martin who sped around the out-and-back course in 10’10" to set the best time of the day. He was never challenged by the other early starters, not even the likes of Edvald Boasson Hagen and Bradley Wiggins of Team Sky - they finished 22 and 46 seconds behind the HTC-Columbia rider, respectively.

After an hour of racing, the rain began to fall again and it ensured that the roads were wet for the duration of the prologue.The surprise was the ride by Tyler Farrar who did his race in the rain and finished 18 seconds behind Martin. Leipheimer finished just 0.02 of a second behind the American and showed that his RadioShack team has plenty of depth in this year’s Tour.

Gerraint Thomas then pushed the American down the rankings with an effort that was 13 seconds behind the German champion’s time.
Martin may not have been hindered by rain but he did his race on wet roads and no one was able to get close to him until David Millar nudged to within three seconds at the intermediate check (4.2km) and then 10 seconds behind at the finish.

As expected the last starters were able to muscle their way into the top order of the prologue with Lance Armstrong (RSH) finishing 12" behind Martin, an impressive time but not enough to eclipse David Millar. And then came the charge of the world champion: Fabian Cancellara finished the 9.8km course in 10:00.480. His average speed was 53.4km/h. It is the fourth time he has won the opening day of the Tour and taken the yellow jersey (following his efforts from 2004, 2007 and 2009).

Source: letour.fr