Extraordinarily the Tour will in 2007 take off in London where the prologue will be run on a 8 kilometre circuit through the great city of London, and before the Tour circus will leave the British island, they will have to make their way from London to Canterbury on another historic tour stage. Then we have five flat stages, with one of them ending in Gent in Belgium, before the riders hit the first mountain stage to Le Grand-Bornand, where the final GC will begin to form. The very next day the riders face the first mountain top finish and any rider fancying the overall win can not afford an off-day here, as the riders will have to cross two 1st category climbs before hitting the final climb to Tignes, which is also a 1st category climb with its 18 kilometres and an average slope of 5,5%.
Then the riders earn a day-off before the 9th stage takes the peloton over the two mythical hors category climbs of Col de l’Iseran and Col de Galibier, before the stage will be settled between the strongest rider in Briancon. Then we have three flat stages ending in respectively Marseille, Montpeiller and Castres, before the GC riders need to come up big on the 54 kilometre individual time trial on the 13th stage, that takes the riders on a loop around Albi. The 14th stage ends on the testing Plateau-de-Beille, so the top GC riders will have to be at their best today, before they cross Col de Port, Col de Portet d’Aspet, Col de Menté, Col de Balés and Col de Peyresourde on the 15th stage, which ends in Loudenvielle le Louron. The following day the riders can relax a bit on the last day-off, before the final stretch towards Paris commences.
And the riders need to be sharp already on the 16th stage where the Tour could be settled when the riders will have to negotiate the mythical Col d’Aubisque, the top of which the finish line will be at. Eventhough the next two stages are flat the GC riders have a crucial objective to achieve on these days. They have to stay out of the wind and to do so they need their teammates, and the captain who has lost a lot his domestiques in the mountains will have a distinct disadvantage.
The 19th stage will be the final decider if it hasn’t been so yet. It features a 55,5 kilometre individual time trial and if the yellow jersey has an off-day here, he could lose it all today. This could prove to be a thriller right down to the wire. After yesterday’s efforts on the time trial it’s time to celebrate for the riders who have made it through the mountains and it doesn’t matter if you are the yellow jersey or if you 132nd in the GC. It’s an achievement just to get here. The stage will first up feature some parade driving before the sprinters will fight it out for the most prestigious win a sprinter can become. Namely the one at Champs-Élysées.
After three weeks of hard labour the riders have raced 3.550 kilometres on their way to Paris and they visited four countries on their way.
Stage 9 | Le Grand-Bornand > Tignes – 165 km
Stage 14 | Mazamet > Plateau-de-Beille – 197 km
Stage 16 | Orthez > Gourette Col d’Ausbisque – 218,5 km
The Favourites
Andreas Klöden (AST) : The top favourites after the exclusion of Alexandre Vinokourov is Vinokourov’s teammate Andreas Klöden. He showed impressive form in Dauphiné and he is most likely even stronger now than he was in June. He’s a fantastic time trialist, the best of the GC riders and it is this ability he has to put his faith in. He’s a very resilient climber, he reminds a lot of Jan Ullrich when climbing because of his ability not to crack completely and keep his own pace up the mountains. He doesn’t have the strenght to win a mountain top stage, but he can win the Tour on time trials and he needs to establish his credentials already on the prologue in London.
Strenghts: Fantastic time trial ability, strong helper in Savoldelli.
Weaknesses: Tends to lose time on the toughest climbs, motivation issues.
Alejandro Valverde (GCE) : He won the Dauphiné ahead of Andreas Klöden, but his lack of experience versus Klöden’s in Grand Tours could very well be the difference between these two riders. Eventhough Valverde seems to have a slightly worse off-days than Klöden in the mountains, he is a better climber than the German and if he is in the leading group at the top he will definitely win the stage. He lacks some on the time trial eventhough he has improved significantly which he proved in last year’s Vuelta a España. He can get rid off Klöden in the mountains, but he needs to get so much rid of him here that the German can’t regain the lost time on the time trials, because Valverde WILL lose time on Klöden here.
Strenghts: Amazing punchy acceleration on the steepest climbs, great finisher.
Weaknesses: Lacks on the time trial, rather weak team backing him up.
Cadel Evans (PRL) : He has been pretty anonymous this season before the took overall 7th in the Dauphiné, but here he lacked a lot compared to Klöden and Valverde and if he wants to compete for the win here, his form has to be a lot better than it was in Dauphiné. But taking it is that, then this Aussie has the whole package. On his best days he’s better than Valverde in the mountains and he has great time trial aswell. He has a tendency to drop off the back of the leading group on the last part of the mountain and he has to stay clear of this, because he needs to get rid off Klöden in the mountains.
Strenghts: Very well-rounded stage racer, amazing climber, great time trialist.
Weaknesses: Team has other objectives that might come in Cadel’s way and not stay focused on the GC.
Carlos Sastre (CSC) : The CSC captain could be the best of the GC riders in the mountains, but his form in Tour de Suisse showed some concerning signs for his team as he couldn’t even break into the top ten. But if Sastre has hit his peak condition you can’t count him out. Before the last time trial last year he was only 12 seconds shy of the lead after a fantastic ride in the mountains the day before brought him in fantastic position in the GC. But then his big problem occures, namely the time trial. But this year he has shown big improvement in this field, and as said, if his form is peaking he could be the tallest man in Paris.
Strenghts: Incredible climber, improved time trialist, backed up by great team.
Weaknesses: Has form issues, his time trial is not on the same level as Evans’ and Klöden’s.
Levi Leipheimer (DSC) : Leipheimer is the American hope of this year’s Tour de France and eventhough he has changed to Discovery Channel he is still team captain in the Tour de France. He’s backed up by young starlet Alberto Contador who will be looking to redeem a poor season so far, so Levi has a very determined helper in this young Spanish climber. Leipheimer himself is a great time trialist, about the same level as Cadel Evans and he is a decent climber. If he can pull off some great performances in the mountains he could use the long time trials to take himself to the podium, at least. He won last year’s Dauphiné Liberé so he has definitely proven himself as a genuine stage racer and he could be trouble for others if he gets his act together in the mountains.
Strenghts: Great time trialist, decent climber, very strong team.
Weaknesses: Needs to stay clear of illness which he is prone to.
Outsiders
Dennis Menchov (RAB) : The captain’s role is finally completely settled on Rabobank this year after the exclusion of Michael Rasmussen, so Menchov will have a team one hundred percent focused on helping him to victory. He showed he has got what it takes last year where he won a great mountain stage. Also he’s a decent time trialist, so he could be a surprise podium finisher.
Christophe Moreau (A2R) : The big French hope is Christophe Moreau, but is he too old? He has the abilities for a top ten place, but can he come through with the home crowd roaring for a much needed French tour win?
Frank Schleck (CSC) : The lieutenant of CSC’ tour team is Frank Schleck and he could get his GC breakthrough this year. He won Paris-Nice back in March and he has had an awesome season with lots of wins, so after finishing 20th in Tour de Suisse, the ProTour leader comes into the Tour de France very confident.
Alberto Contador (DSC) : Contador has been a dissapointment so far this season so he must be very hungry for succes when he makes his first Tour start in London. He’s tied to obligations of helping Leipheimer, but should the American go down and lose time in the GC, the Spaniard will be ready to step up and fight for his own succes.
Michael Rogers (TMO) : T-Mobile does not have an obvious Tour winner, but in Michael Rogers they have a good bid for the overall GC nevertheless. He has shown his climbing potential on a lot of occasions and his time trial abilities can’t be questioned with his three World TT Championships.
SportingNonsense wrote:
Go Wiggins! (And Zabriskie + Cancellara )
About Wiggins I realised that his TT stat was only 72 or so after I raced the prologue. I wanted to change it, but it slipped by mind, so he couldn't do much on the prologue. I did include a picture of him though, if it makes you feel better
July 7:Le Tour de France | Londres > Londres – 8 km
Stage Profile
Team: Carlos Sastre, Frank Schleck, Fabian Cancellara, Jens Voigt, Bobby Julich, David Zabriskie, Christian Vandevelde, Iñigo Cuesta and Juan José Haedo.
The day we have all been waiting for is finally here. No more guessing and discussing about who’s on form and who’s not, today we get a first, but subtle answer as to who has the ability to be on the top of the podium in Paris on July 29. We have a very open Tour indeed this year, especially after massive favourite Alexandre Vinokourov got excluded about a week ago. Despite Sastre couldn’t quite keep up in Switzerland we have a secret hope that he can finally rise to the top and win his first ever Grand Tour and we’re almost positive that he’ll be on the podium in Paris in three weeks. He has timed his form perfectly and I’m pretty interested in seeing how he does today on the time trial. Our main objective relies on another rider however, namely Cancellara who is the undisputed favourite to come away with the win today.
The first rider in with a shout on today’s prologue was Swede Thomas Løvkvist and it looks like this young man is on fire in his third tour start, as he absolutely thrashed the proviosional leader by 32 seconds and eventhough it was early, it was still a pretty damn fast time made by the young prospect, who we’ll definitely keep an eye on. But Caisse d’Epargne’s second starter today, Vladimir Karpets would soon end the Swede’s happiness as he clocked a superb time, 1 seconds faster than Løvkvist. This bodes well for Valverde, who will look to Karpets for protection when we hit the mountains.
Karpets and Løvkvist clocked early but fast times as they both seem capable of doing something in this Tour.
Some 10 minutes later it was time for Spartacus to dictate. Cancellara didn’t quite feel at his best today, but his form is good an he is by far the best time trialist in London right now, so I was sure he would clinch the lead ahead of Karpets. He held a steady pace on the first half of the course before turning the final motors on on the last part as he raced his way to a unheard of lead of 13 seconds!
Fabian Cancellara looks set to win his second Tour de France Prologue as he blew away Løvkvist and Karpets with 14 and 13 seconds.
The next Caisse d’Epargne rider was their captain, Alejandro Valverde and he was the first of the GC favourites to hit the course. Valverde isn’t the strongest of time trialists and he could only finish 10th out of the 45 riders that have finished so far. He was 31 seconds slower than Fabian. Then it was Dave’s turn. He has also raced the entire Giro d’Italia this season, so naturally he would feel more fatigue than a rider like Fabian but nevertheless he should be capable of a decent time trial today. But he was a bit dissapointing though, as he could only manage provisional 6th, 24 seconds slower than Fabian, with a lot of riders to go.
Valverde wasn’t quite up to the task and nor was Zabriskie considering his abilities as a time trialist.
The next two GC favourites out were Dennis Menchov and Frank Schleck, you might call them outsiders as they are not top favourites here. Dennis Menchov clocked a decent provisional 11th, 32 seconds slower, while Frank could only manage 22nd, 48 seconds off Cancellara.
Frank Schleck didn’t get the best of starts but Menchov seems pretty strong considering that he has never been very good in prologues.
American hope Levi Leipheimer, captain of Discovery, was next up. And the American was really strong today. He couldn’t keep up with Fabian, Karpets or Løvkvist but he managed to clock 4th best time so far, which is pretty good from the podium candidate from the States. T-Mobile does not have a top favourite in their team, but they do have a young German stage race prospect in Linus Gerdemann, who earned his first Tour start this afternoon in London, and he returned the favour by clocking a very impressive provisional time as the 7th fastest on the line, 22 seconds off Cancellara, meaning he actually beat Zabriskie and were just three seconds off his teammate Michael Rogers.
Leipheimer and Gerdemann are both in good form and there’s no doubt they will both be looking to achieve their individual goals the next three weeks.
No Tour de France without “Big George” Hincapie. The American cobble specialist was the next Discovery rider on the platform. But he couldn’t relive his earlier prologue achievements as he was 45 seconds off Cancellara and ended the day in 61st. Very dissapointing and it doesn’t seem like we will see much to Hincapie throughout this Tour after all. Christian Vandevelde earned the last spot on our Tour de France team mainly because of some nice riding in the Giro and he was our next rider on the London asphalt. But he has been racing a lot this year and his form isn’t at its peak yet, eventhough I think it will be at some point in this tour, so he only managed 66th today, 46 seconds off the pace of Cancellara.
Big George doesn’t look fit at all after a long break and Vandevelde will have to work up his form the next three weeks.
Mikhail Ignatiev of one of the two wild card team in this year’s Tour, Tinkoff Credit Systems, has had a good season so far with a lot of top tens on different time trials and he has shown up in form for the Tour aswell. Of course he could get near to Cancellara but he did pull off a very good time, which is really impressive considering it’s the first Tour start of the young Russian prospect. He claimed provisional 6th, “just” 18 seconds off Fabian’s phantom time. Then a few minutes later the number one Tour favourite started. Andreas Klöden. And he really showed why he is considered to be the biggest Tour favourite of them all. He kept a constant high pace and at the finish he was only 5 seconds shy of the best time, which is really impressive. I don’t think anyone can do better than that. Except Fabian of course.
Ignatiev can be very well pleased with his first 8 kilometres as a Tour rider, while Klöden’s intentions regarding the Tour win must be take very seriously now.
Time for Carlos to signal his intent. He has been on impressive form in time trials the last month, especially when he finished 3rd in the Spanish National ITT Championships. He’s normally pretty good on short time trials like this, so I think we can expect a good result from him. But the competition in the greatest cycling race of the world is very stiff and Sastre had to settle for a provisional 17th, 29 seconds slower than his teammate. It’s still pretty good I think. Shortly after the last of the GC top favourites took off, Aussie Cadel Evans. But Evans dissapointed a bit as he lost 8 seconds on Sastre, 32 on Klöden, 6 on Valverde and 20 on Leipheimer. Not the start he was looking for definitely, but you got to keep in mind that he is a fantastic climber.
Sastre surprisingly rode a better time trial than Evans, as the Aussie might not be as strong as he was predicted to be, the mountains will give us the answer later.
Voigt won about a week the German National ITT Champioships for the first time in his career and so we hoped we would get us a good result today. For some reason he wasn’t wearing the German national jersey, but that didn’t bother us when we saw the time he pulled off. He had told me just before he took off that he was feeling great today and with the form he is in you can’t count him out. Voigt raced his way past Capitol and Big Ben to finish as the 4th fastest rider at the finish line at the Mall. The home crowd put their hopes on the shoulders of Bradley Wiggins as Millar surprisingly wasn’t on the Saunier Duval Team. Wiggins was very dissapointing though as he would finish 34th on the day, 33 seconds off the Swiss leader.
Voigt is in incredible form right now and he’ll definitely be looking to win a stage for the second year running. Wiggins might also do that, but he doesn’t seem very strong.
The one of the last two time trialists to start was the newly crowned Dutch ITT Champion Thomas Dekker, who earned a place on Rabobank’s team following the exclusion of Michael Rasmussen. And Dekker returned the favour by clocking the 7th fastest time and he would hold on to that spot for the rest of the day as there were only ten or so riders left. Bobby Julich was our last rider on the course. We had a slight hope that he could get into the top ten, but he wasn’t strong enough on the day as he had to settle for 18th, which is still pretty good.
Dekker started off his first Tour de France in style and who knows if Menchov yet again will be robbed of his captaincy during the Tour.
So a fantastic start for us as Cancellara was the strongest today and won the yellow jersey. We don’t want to waste a lot of energy defending it at this point, so we will look to the sprinter teams to reel in any dangerous breaks that might threaten Cancellara’s lead. Sastre is also looking very strong as he was faster than both Valverde, Evans and Menchov today. Tomorrow we have the first flat stage and we hope that Haedo can find his way to the front of the pack on home stretch, because he is in great form and he could gain us some top tens in the mass sprints, if he manages to position himself well enough. One thing’s for sure, we’re in for a great three weeks in Britain, Belgium, Spain and of course France.
Le Tour de France - Prologue | Result
1 Fabian Cancellara TEAM CSC 9'53
2 Andreas Klöden ASTANA + 5
3 Vladimir Karpets CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 13 4 Jens Voigt TEAM CSC + 14
5 Thomas Lövkvist FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
6 Paolo Savoldelli ASTANA + 16
7 Thomas Dekker RABOBANK s.t.
8 Levi Leipheimer DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 17
9 Mikhail Ignatiev TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS + 18
10 Michael Rogers T-MOBILE TEAM + 19
11 Markus Fothen GEROLSTEINER + 21
12 Yaroslav Popovych DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 22
13 Linus Gerdemann T-MOBILE TEAM s.t. 14 David Zabriskie TEAM CSC + 24
15 Laszlo Bodrogi CREDIT AGRICOLE + 25
16 Benoit Vaugrenard FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 26
17 Christophe Moreau AG2R PREVOYANCE s.t. 18 Bobby Julich TEAM CSC s.t.
19 Tom Danielson DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 28
20 Tomas Vaitkus DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t. 23 Carlos Sastre TEAM CSC + 29
48 Frank Schleck TEAM CSC + 42
66 Christian Vandevelde TEAM CSC + 46
69 Iñigo Cuesta TEAM CSC + 47
179 Juan José Haedo TEAM CSC + 1'19
Le Tour de France – Prologue | GC
1 Fabian Cancellara TEAM CSC 9'53
2 Andreas Klöden ASTANA + 5
3 Vladimir Karpets CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 13 4 Jens Voigt TEAM CSC + 14
5 Thomas Lövkvist FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
6 Paolo Savoldelli ASTANA + 16
7 Thomas Dekker RABOBANK s.t.
8 Levi Leipheimer DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 17
9 Mikhail Ignatiev TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS + 18
10 Michael Rogers T-MOBILE TEAM + 19
11 Markus Fothen GEROLSTEINER + 21
12 Yaroslav Popovych DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 22
13 Linus Gerdemann T-MOBILE TEAM s.t. 14 David Zabriskie TEAM CSC + 24
15 Laszlo Bodrogi CREDIT AGRICOLE + 25
16 Benoit Vaugrenard FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 26
17 Christophe Moreau AG2R PREVOYANCE s.t. 18 Bobby Julich TEAM CSC s.t.
19 Tom Danielson DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 28
20 Tomas Vaitkus DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
21 Sebastian Lang GEROLSTEINER s.t.
22 Sébastien Rosseler QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t. 23 Carlos Sastre TEAM CSC + 29
24 Jason McCartney DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
25 Bert Roesems PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
26 Alberto Contador DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 30
27 Alejandro Valverde CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 31
28 Rigoberto Uran UNIBET.COM s.t.
29 Haimar Zubeldia EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 32
30 Denis Menchov RABOBANK s.t.
31 Raivis Belohvosciks SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
32 Yuriy Krivtsov AG2R PREVOYANCE + 33
33 Stef Clement BOUYGUES TELECOM s.t.
34 Bradley Wiggins COFIDIS s.t.
35 Tyler Hamilton TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS + 34
36 Magnus Backstedt LIQUIGAS + 36
37 Leif Hoste PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
38 Thor Hushovd CREDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
39 Brett Lancaster TEAM MILRAM + 37
40 Amaël Moinard COFIDIS s.t.
41 Cadel Evans PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
42 Chris Horner PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 38
43 Antonio Colom ASTANA s.t.
44 Vladimir Gusev DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 39
45 Marcel Sieberg TEAM MILRAM s.t.
46 Marzio Bruseghin LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 40
47 Nikolai Trussov TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS + 42 48 Frank Schleck TEAM CSC s.t.
49 Vincenzo Nibali LIQUIGAS s.t.
50 Vasil Kiryienka TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS s.t.
51 William Bonnet CREDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
52 Roberto Petito LIQUIGAS s.t.
53 Pavel Brutt TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS s.t.
54 Nicolas Portal CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 43
55 Nick Nuyens COFIDIS s.t.
56 Sylvain Chavanel COFIDIS + 44
57 Frank Hoj COFIDIS s.t.
58 Alexei Markov CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
59 Andriy Grivko TEAM MILRAM + 45
60 Mikel Astarloza EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI s.t.
61 George Hincapie DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
62 Rubens Bertogliati SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
63 Tom Boonen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
64 Baden Cooke UNIBET.COM + 46
65 Juan José Cobo Acebo SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t. 66 Christian Vandevelde TEAM CSC s.t.
67 Alessandro Ballan LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
68 Sébastien Joly FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 47 69 Iñigo Cuesta TEAM CSC s.t.
70 Sandy Casar FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
71 Manuel Quinziato LIQUIGAS s.t.
72 Dario Cioni PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 48
73 Vladimir Efimkin CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
74 Marcos Serrano KARPIN - GALICIA + 49
75 José Ramon Troncoso Sobrino KARPIN - GALICIA + 50
76 Philippe Gilbert FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
77 Matthias Kessler ASTANA s.t.
78 Laurent Brochard BOUYGUES TELECOM s.t.
79 Kim Kirchen T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
80 Ivan Parra COFIDIS + 51
81 José Vicente García Acosta CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
82 Ivan Rovny TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS + 52
83 Iker Camaño SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
84 Didier Rous BOUYGUES TELECOM s.t.
85 Sven Krauss GEROLSTEINER + 53
86 Alexander Serov TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS s.t.
87 Samuel Sánchez G. EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI s.t.
88 Beat Zberg GEROLSTEINER s.t.
89 Peter Van Petegem QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 54
90 Martin Elmiger AG2R PREVOYANCE + 55
91 Gert Steegmans QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 56
92 Cédric Vasseur QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
93 Pietro Caucchioli CREDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
94 Juan Antonio Flecha RABOBANK + 57
95 Maxime Monfort COFIDIS s.t.
96 Steven De Jongh QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
97 Daniele Contrini TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS s.t.
98 Pierrick Fédrigo BOUYGUES TELECOM s.t.
99 Johann Tschopp BOUYGUES TELECOM + 58
100 Cyril Dessel AG2R PREVOYANCE s.t.
101 Koldo Fernandez EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI s.t.
102 Staf Scheirlinckx COFIDIS + 59
103 Anthony Geslin BOUYGUES TELECOM + 1'00
104 Thomas Voeckler BOUYGUES TELECOM s.t.
105 Patxi Vila LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 1'01
106 Xavier Florencio BOUYGUES TELECOM s.t.
107 Leonardo Duque COFIDIS s.t.
108 Juan Manuel Gárate QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
109 Serguei Ivanov ASTANA s.t.
110 Arnaud Coyot UNIBET.COM + 1'02
111 Andreas Klier T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
112 Elia Rigotto TEAM MILRAM s.t.
113 Stefano Zanini PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
114 Rémy Di Gregorio FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 1'03
115 Alexandre Botcharov CREDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
116 Heinrich Haussler GEROLSTEINER s.t.
117 Grégory Rast ASTANA + 1'04
118 Tadej Valjavec LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
119 Ezequiel Mosquera Miguez KARPIN - GALICIA s.t.
120 Luis Pasamontes R. UNIBET.COM s.t.
121 Bernhard Eisel T-MOBILE TEAM + 1'05
122 Guennadi Mikhailov ASTANA s.t.
123 Gustavo Domínguez Lemos KARPIN - GALICIA s.t.
124 Jérôme Pineau BOUYGUES TELECOM s.t.
125 Danilo Di Luca LIQUIGAS s.t.
126 Enrique Alonso Salgueiro KARPIN - GALICIA s.t.
127 David Abal Diego KARPIN - GALICIA + 1'06
128 Anthony Charteau CREDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
129 Fabian Wegmann GEROLSTEINER s.t.
130 Michael Boogerd RABOBANK s.t.
131 Guido Trentin SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
132 Oscar Freire RABOBANK + 1'07
133 Fred Rodriguez PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
134 Matthé Pronk UNIBET.COM s.t.
135 Axel Merckx T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
136 Marcus Burghardt T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
137 Erwin Thijs UNIBET.COM + 1'08
138 Serguei Klimov TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS s.t.
139 John Gadret AG2R PREVOYANCE s.t.
140 Gilberto Simoni SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
141 Frederic Guesdon FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
142 Enrico Poitschke TEAM MILRAM s.t.
143 Gonzalo Rabunal Rios KARPIN - GALICIA + 1'09
144 Ivan Velasco Murillo EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI s.t.
145 Remmert Wielinga SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
146 Allan Davis DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
147 Dmitriy Muravyev ASTANA + 1'10
148 José Rojas Gil CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
149 Christophe Mengin FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
150 Kevin Van Impe QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 1'11
151 Alberto Fernández SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
152 Paolo Tiralongo LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
153 Hubert Dupont AG2R PREVOYANCE + 1'12
154 Max Van Heeswijk RABOBANK s.t.
155 Damiano Cunego LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
156 Sébastien Chavanel FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 1'13
157 Fabio Sacchi TEAM MILRAM s.t.
158 Alberto Ongarato TEAM MILRAM + 1'14
159 Alessandro Spezialetti LIQUIGAS s.t.
160 Jeremy Hunt UNIBET.COM s.t.
161 Marco Zanotti UNIBET.COM s.t.
162 Robert Förster GEROLSTEINER + 1'15
163 Erik Zabel TEAM MILRAM s.t.
164 Jean-Patrick Nazon AG2R PREVOYANCE s.t.
165 Leon Van Bon RABOBANK s.t.
166 Samuel Dumoulin AG2R PREVOYANCE + 1'16
167 Björn Leukemans PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
168 Unai Etxebarria EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI s.t.
169 David López García CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
170 Peter Wrölich GEROLSTEINER s.t.
171 Graeme Brown RABOBANK + 1'17
172 Angelo Furlan CREDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
173 Eros Capecchi LIQUIGAS s.t.
174 David Garcia Dapena KARPIN - GALICIA s.t.
175 Igor Astarloa TEAM MILRAM + 1'18
176 Giuseppe Guerini T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
177 Murilo Fischer LIQUIGAS s.t.
178 Julian Dean CREDIT AGRICOLE s.t. 179 Juan José Haedo TEAM CSC + 1'19
180 Luca Paolini LIQUIGAS s.t.
181 Andrea Tonti QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
182 Gaizka Lasa Larraya KARPIN - GALICIA + 1'20
183 Danilo Napolitano LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
184 Robbie McEwen PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 1'21
185 Bernhard Kohl GEROLSTEINER s.t.
186 Daniele Bennati LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 1'22
187 Alexandre Usov AG2R PREVOYANCE s.t.
188 Gorka Verdugo M. EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI s.t.
189 Rubén Lobato Elvira SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
190 Fabio Baldato LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 1'23
191 Aitor Galdós Alonso EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 1'24
192 Dimitri Fofonov CREDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
193 Jimmy Casper UNIBET.COM s.t.
194 René Haselbacher ASTANA + 1'25
195 Mauricio Ardila RABOBANK + 1'26
196 Jorge Azanza Soto EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 1'27
197 Vicente Reynès CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 1'29
198 Roger Hammond T-MOBILE TEAM + 1'31
Le Tour de France - Prologue | Points Competition
1 Fabian Cancellara TEAM CSC 15
2 Andreas Klöden ASTANA 12
3 Vladimir Karpets CAISSE D'EPARGNE 10 4 Jens Voigt TEAM CSC 8
5 Thomas Lövkvist FRANÇAISE DES JEUX 6
6 Paolo Savoldelli ASTANA 5
7 Thomas Dekker RABOBANK 4
8 Levi Leipheimer DISCOVERY CHANNEL 3
9 Mikhail Ignatiev TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS 2
10 Michael Rogers T-MOBILE TEAM 1
Fabian Cancellara won the Tour de France Prologue superiorly to win the first yellow jersey of this year’s Tour de France.
After the Tour de France Prologue.
ProTour | Individual Standings
1 Fränk Schleck TEAM CSC 184 2 Andy Schleck TEAM CSC 181
3 Davide Rebellin GEROLSTEINER 171
4 Paolo Bettini QUICKSTEP – INNERGETIC 149
5 Rinaldo Nocentini AG2R PREVOYANCE 139
6 Samuel Sánchez G. EUSKALTEL-EUSKADI 136
7 Ricardo Riccó SAUNIER DUVAL – PRODIR 132
8 Damiano Cunego LAMPRE-FONDITAL 126
9 Danilo Di Luca LIQUIGAS 122
10 Filippo Pozzato LIQUIGAS 117 12 Fábian Cancellara TEAM CSC 107
23 Karsten Kroon TEAM CSC 66
28 David Zabriskie TEAM CSC 45
30 Jens Voigt TEAM CSC 44
43 Stuart O’Grady TEAM CSC 28
79 Nicki Sørensen TEAM CSC 8
80 Christian Vandevelde TEAM CSC 8
83 Lars Ytting Bak TEAM CSC 6
84 Michael Blaudzun TEAM CSC 6
87 Luke Roberts TEAM CSC 6
114 Kurt-Asle Arvesen TEAM CSC 2
128 Chris Anker Sørensen TEAM CSC 2
140 Alexandr Kolobnev TEAM CSC 1
