A 5,6 km intense effort marks the start of this six-day event. Prologue specialists such as Cornu, Boom, Van Winden and Gretsch are the stage favourites, whereas the GC contenders will try to limit their losses.
The coverage begins with just over 10 riders having already completed the course. Viennet is holding the best time so far with 7'34.
That's about to change however, as Van Winden is just coming home with the new best time. 7'27 gives him a massive lead of 7 seconds, though there are still many riders left to take on the course.
Martyn Irvine has been pressured by his team manager on several occasions due to not quite achieving the expected results. Nevertheless, he puts in a good performance today and goes into provisional 3rd with 7'36.
A little while later comes the next ING rider. This time squad captain Roche, who defends himself fairly well and stops the timer at 7'43 - just 16 seconds off his leading team mate's pace.
Despite being a bit of an outside bet for today, Johan Lindgren handles the technical turns on the short course skillfully. This is shown by his time of 7'34, which is enough to knock Irvine down to 4th.
Vasil Kiryenka has been named captain for the ever consistent Tinkoff squad in this race, mainly because of his capacity against the clock.
Unfortunately for them, he seems a bit off today and can't do better than 5th on the provisional ranking table, with 7'39.
Having targeted this stage as a personal win-goal, Patrick Gretsch might be more motivated than any other rider. The Amex team has been going strong lately, and are looking for the trend to continue.
The home public's cheers aren't quite enough for him though, as he misses Van Winden's time by the matter of just a mere second. With a look of disappointment, he shakes his head as he rolls away to the podium area.
Attention then turns to Germany's next hope, both for the stage and the overall classification: Gerdemann
On a harder course, he might've been able to challenge the leaders, but today's race is just a little too easy and he sets a time of 7'37. At least that gives him a few seconds of advantage on Roche for later.
Van Winden's benchmark time continues to stand tall for now, but more and more riders are coming close - with Michiel Elijzen being the latest one. 7'29 puts him in 3rd place for now.
Regardless of his Dutch passport, Boom might be starting to feel like a German by now, in his second season with the Rothaus team. He is also one of today's big favourites, and a serious overall contender.
The timer once again shows 7'29, but the margins are on Elijzen's side as Boom goes into 4th for now. Perhaps holding a little back for later?
Meanwhile in the Tinkoff camp, possibly a change of leader as Pavel Brutt impresses with 7'37 - two seconds faster than team mate Kiryenka.
And here comes Cornu...
... with the new best time! The Belgian national champion shaves 4 seconds off Van Winden's lead to take over the hot seat.
The good news for Cornu is that there are only a few riders remaining - most of whom aren't specialists in this discipline. Among those we see Mehr-Wenige: today dressed in the ordinary Adira outfit.
The loss ends up being 30 seconds, which is admittedly a fair bit over such short distance, but still no disaster.
Saying that Cornu is already safe is wrong though, as threats like Konovalovas remain.
The Lithuanian does well, but lacks the real edge and settles for a top 10 today with 7'35.
Sinkewitz, on the other hand, has probably been dreading this stage for a while now.
He performs well enough though, and "only" concedes 26 seconds to Cornu. A rider like him can easily make that up on the final stage's climbs.
We're down to the last three, all of whom are sprinters. First is Haussler, who has been tipped a real threat for the overall due to his excellent climbing skills. Today's timetrialling might actually be his weakest link.
The screen shows 7'57, representing a loss of 34 seconds. He should be able to close that deficit with some bonus seconds later.
Other German top sprinter Kupfernagel isn't at all the kind of climber Haussler is, but on the other hand a solid rider for short time trials like today's. Can he set himself up for a potential leader's jersey tomorrow, perhaps?
Possibly. He loses 16 seconds today, which the bonus seconds for winning stage two would make up for. Of course, the last man out on the course will try to stop that from happening.
That man being Ismael Kip. A surprisingly strong prologue rider, considering how weak he is in most other non-sprinting abilities.
He does indeed successfully wreck Kupfernagel's plan by clocking 7'37, and a 14th place on today's stage. He might very well be the next race leader thanks to the bonus seconds available tomorrow.
He's not in yellow now though, as Dominique Cornu wins the prologue!
