A 5-km prologue starts the dance in Praha. With such a short length, we have seen everything happen in the recent past, but the main characters of this race will try to keep the chance of leading since day 1 from slipping out of their reach.
In particular, we know that the 3 best time trialists of the moment - Coppel, Phinney and Fiedler, as well as several others among the top names - all come here with GC ambitions, and they are going to need to show their form since the opening day to achieve their goal.
Vorobev sets a first really interesting time, stopping the clock in 6'15", and beating the previous leading time set by Walsleben by 9 seconds.
Olman immediately beats his time, as the Aussie champion is done with his time trial 2 seconds earlier than Tinkoff's co-leader.
Zmorka's time, however, is the one that is likely to stand unbeaten for the longest time, as the Ukrainian champion closes in 6'04", a whopping 9 seconds faster than the previous leading performance by Olman.
Vlatos crosses the line immediately after Zmorka and gets close to him, staying only 3" off his time.
Not a bad showing from the Greek champion, though we will have to wait for more riders to cross the line to assess his performance more accurately.
Surprisingly good performance by Li, who after a provisional lead after the first checkpoint, closes in 3rd place, 5" behind Zmorka.
Just as surprising is Mottin's time, as the Frenchman proceeds to beat Vlatos' time in order to sit in 2nd place for the moment, only 2 seconds slower than Zmorka.
He had the leading time after 2 kms, so he lost 4 seconds from the Ukrainian champion in 3 kms.
Not a bad time trial by Meyer, who closing 5" off Zmorka's time, puts himself in a position which could potentially allow him to take the jersey tomorrow, thanks to his sprint skills.
Koren also matches Meyer and Li's times, stopping the clock in 6'09".
Sütterlin is the new leader as he goes on to shatter Zmorka's time, closing in 6 minutes sharp. Impressive performance by the youngster!
Unfortunately for him, however, Ford doesn't even give him the time to settle on the leader's seat, as the Australian improves his time by 3 seconds, being the first rider to tear down the 6 minutes wall.
Great time by Martin as well, who matches Zmorka's time in 6'04".
Hansen outdoes himself as he also finishes in just 6 minutes. We're seeing some great performances one after the other!
Top stuff by Hepburn after him, too, with the Australian - representing one of the 3 main options for Metinvest's GC ambitions - closing in 6 minutes himself, and unexpectedly beating his teammate's time by 3 seconds.
Kittel sprints in the last metres, and that's a wise decision as the German takes over the lead from Ford by just 1 second!
This prologue is revealing a lot more exciting than anticipated.
Another great time is set by Malori, who also closes - as several others have done before - in 6 minutes.
So far only 2 riders managed to stay below the 6' mark.
And just to strengthen the presence of 6-minute time trials, it's Fraile stopping the clock with the same time as Sütterlin, Malori, Hepburn and Hansen.
Slightly underwhelming performance by Keizer considering the previous ones, but that still means a top 10: Aegon's leader closes in 6'05".
Same goes for Durbridge, who is only 12th for the moment, closing in 6'06". Definitely could have gone better for him considering some of the times set by riders that weren't expected to do as well as him.
Howson stops the clock in 6'03", which is not too shabby at all considering that it's a better time than several other top 10 contenders. The Australian is 8th for the moment, with several riders still to come.
Coppel absolutely doesn't disappoint and finally dethrones Kittel! The French champion closes in 5'53", 3 seconds faster than the German's time, and he definitely proves that it's still possible to improve the leading time.
Hussein with a great performance to close 19th in 6'08", the same time as Koren, Li and his teammate Meyer.
Gretsch defends Gazelle's colours, provisionally occupying the 9th place as he's done for the day in 6'02".
Downey shows off his beautiful kit by closing in 20th, just a position behind Hussein, who crossed the line earlier on.
Another good time is later set by Dennis, who finishes in 9th with a time of 6'02".
Barth is one of the 3 best hopes for Karcher's GC ambitions, and lives up to them also closing in 6'08".
We now have 7 riders who closed in 6'08" as Cataford joins in.
Boom finishes off in 6'06", only 1 second slower than his teammate Keizer.
Dempster sets the same time as his teammate Howson, and sits in 9th for the moment. 6'02" for him.
Andersen with a decent time, too, as he closes in 6'07", which at the moment means 20th position for him.
Bookwalter is the 6th rider to close in exactly 6 minutes, which is not bad at all as that grants him a 5th place for the moment.
Not a bad performance from Bobridge, who closes in 6'06", the same time as Vlatos.
Chavanne adds himself to the short list of riders that could finish under the 6 minutes mark, as he now holds the 4th place in 5'58". Great performance for one of the very few prologue specialists around!
Balloni closes in 6'03" - same time as Zmorka and Martin, in 16th place.
Danish champion Christensen closes in 6'06", matching Bobridge and Vlatos' times, which at this point are not even worth a top 20.
Bernaudeau beats teammate Vlatos by 3 seconds to stop the clock in 6'03" and close in a provisional 16th place.
Viennet is the 5th rider to finish in under 6 minutes, crossing the line after 5'58", similarly to Chavanne.
After him Aregger sets a decent time - the same as Keizer in 6'04", which means he can only just sneak in the top 20.
Sergent also closes in 5'58", just like Viennet and Chavanne.
The Kiwi champion is currently 4th, with 21 riders that are yet to cross the line – although most of them have no stgae ambitions, it has to be specified.
Enger is the 8th rider to close in 6'08", 15" behind Coppel, who is still comfortably first as no one has threatened him yet.
Coppel can, yet again, heave a sigh of relief as one of his most dangerous rivals, Fiedler, comes really short of his first position. And when I say short, I mean really short, since the German champion closed in 5'54", 1 second behind the leader.
Coppel's lead, however, can only last 4 more minutes, thanks to Phinney's impressive performance. The former World champion forcefully ousts the now former leader, with a time of 5'51", 2 seconds faster than the former top time trial.
Not an overly satisfied Ignatiev crosses the line in only just less than 6 minutes. Still a fairly good prologue by the Russian champion, who maybe could have wanted more.
Coquard is the last rider to get past the finish line today, and it's certainly a pretty good performance by the French sprinter, who can also do very well in short TTs as he proves today. Being 11 seconds behind Phinney, it will be hard to get the jersey tomorrow, though, which one would assume was the initial plan!
The podium is therefore a quite predictable one, but the rest of the top 20 sees some surprises for sure! It's been an exciting prologue, as much as a prologue can be exciting, so we have high hopes for the 3 remaining stages of this unique Czech event.
