A short 7,6km time trial to start the race. Everybody is expecting a fight between Coppel and Cancellara today with outside chances for some riders like Posthuma.
The race favourites surely hope for Coppel here to avoid giving the Swiss an early advantage. But for those it`s mainly about reducing the loss today.
Posthuma as first of todays stage favourites on the road. Last year he finished as 2th in the GC and he might hope to improve a bit. Even though his biggest strength are the two time trials he isn`t too bad on the other profiles as well and might be a big outside favourite with huge surprise potential.
Not too surprising though that he takes the provisional lead being just under 11min and ahead of Sergent, Johansson or Bonnet.
Coppel is also an early starter as his team mate Bewley got the leader role here. But today the French will be stronger most likely and he proves that by going 2s faster than Posthuma at the intersection and keeping this 2s gap until the finish. Was this already the winner time?
Steurs is Festina`s leader here as pure cobbler and one of the weakest time trialists of the favourites here. So his manager isn`t expecting a lot. Still he was 9th here last year and might want to repeat such a performance.
Today he is 41s down to Coppel though.
Ballan might be one of the most consistent riders here as he finished as 6th, 5th and 4th. So this year he would have to take the podium to continue his trend. Chances are there of course even though the two time trials will hurt him. +28s for him.
Pozzato won the race last year riding for Festina. And he definitely wants to take it another time. Today you can`t expect a very good time but he is strong enough to gain on all other terrains and being just 15s down to Coppel is a great start.
Claeys is todays first pure puncheur and Lotto`s leader. He really needs time gaps on the hilly stages as otherwise he won`t be able to get a high GC. +25s at least a solid performance.
Franzoi is a great cobbler and finished as 8th two years ago. It will be hard to get another result like this but it`s not impossible. +23s.
Di Maggio was fantastic last season in the PCT being a huge part of Venchi`s promotion. But his very one dimensional focus on the hills will most likely hurt any GC hopes for him as he counts as one of the weakest cobblers in cycling and also his time trial skills are under average. Probably only for stage hunt here.
Gilbert was 8th last season and I think this course will suit him a lot. Good chances to fight for the podium I guess. Good start by him being 1s faster than Pozzato and behind Coppel, Posthuma, Clement, Sergent and Johansson on a good 6th so far one ahead of the Italian.
Schumacher another candidate for the podium. Maybe the best puncheur here and also a pretty good time trialist as the German National jersey shows. An even though the cobbles are his weakest spot he could be expected to fight a lot there to reduce the loss.
And he almost surprised us here as he is just 1s down to Coppel and beating Posthuma!
Bewley as next. What a season he has so far. His 10th of last year shows what he is able to reach here. He sure hopes to be better this season even though the start failed a bit as he is 24s down.
Van Garderen is one of two Wikipedia leaders here as they also have a strong cobbler in Summerhill. And while first one was 18th and 20th here so far, Summerhill can already list a 11th GC in 2012 to his palmares. So a great duo being well prepared for this race.
Summerhill is a horrible time trialist and ends almost 1min down while Van Garderen is doing a lot better being 21s down in the top25 of the stage.
Cancellara is one guarantee for Red Bull this season to keep them up in the Pro Tour by delivering a lot of points. This race here could even secure him a top10 individual ranking spot and eventually even a first third position for the team.
Winning the race in 2011 and 3rd in 2012 he is the top favourite for most.
Already the intermediate showed his dominance and in the finish he is 9s faster than his French opponent. Great ride and this will surely be the race lead. A huge factor eventually for him before the hills start.
Boonen seems to be superseded by Bewley this season. Still he is a great rider and sits in 3rd individual ranking. 5th, 4th, 7th so far for him as he participated in all editions. This year he probably hopes for a similar area. Most of us are surely looking on the huge sprinter duels between him, Bewley, Bennati and all the other great riders.
+42s for him is a bit disappointing I guess even though the wind became a bit stronger recently and so he had worse conditions than most previous.
Then again Cancellara had similar conditions and destroyed the rest. Actually good for the others as otherwise the Swiss machine would have gained even more time otherwise.
Last but not least the best cobbler in this race in Burghardt. Two days ago I would have said, he finally needs to deliver as he is usually showing far too less. Then he proved me wrong with his win in the Lisbon Classic. Can he keep his good form to shine in this race like he did in 2010 only when finishing 2nd behind the missing Gusev? His last two appearances here wen`t that successful as 18th and 11th.
Being a weaker time trialist and having the worst conditions as the wind went from 10 in the begin to 25 now, his time can`t be that strong. So being exactly 1min behind Cancellara is not giving him the best position of course but he needs to keep contact in the hills and gain time in the cobbles anyway.
So in total we have the favourites Cancellara, Schumacher, Pozzato, Gilbert in the best position after the prologue, while Summerhill, Burghardt, Vanmarcke, Nuyens or Steurs will need better performances in the upcoming stages. The rest sits somewhere in between.
Result
1
Fabian Cancellara
Simply Red Bull
10'47
2
Jerome Coppel
Milka - AVG
+ 9
3
Stefan Schumacher
UBS - BMC
+ 10
4
Joost Posthuma
Project 1t4i
+ 11
5
Stef Clement
Pokerstars.com
+ 19
6
Jesse Sergent
Milka - AVG
s.t.
7
Freddy Johansson
Koenigsegg
+ 22
8
Philippe Gilbert
Pendleton's
+ 23
9
Filippo Pozzato
Heineken presented by California Giant Berry Farms
