Saturday, July 3, 2010

Prolouge - Advantage Armstrong

The early rounds of the 2010 Tour de France went to Lance Armstrong on a points decision, after he finished five seconds ahead of his chief rival for the Yellow Jersey Alberton Contador. As expected, Fabian Cancellara was the winner on the day, taking the opening day prologue for the fourth time in his career.

The race for the first Yellow Jersey of this years tour was in reality a race in two, between two riders starting just under 3 hours apart. Tony Martin was the 11th rider to leave the starthouse and flew around the course in Rotterdam to just 10 minutes and 10 seconds. Nobody seriously challenged the time until the World and Olympic Champion, the second last rider to leave, Fabian Cancellara, attacked the course. Their is a reason this guy is nicknamed Spartacus - as there is simply no body more powerful than him on a bike. Cancellara burned around the course, leading by 5 seconds at the first check, and doubling that by the end of the 8km course to finish in 10 minutes flat, and grab the yellow jersey by 10 minutes from Martin. Brtian's David Millar turned back the clock with a superb prologue of his own to finish third.

Of the GC conteders it was Armstrong who showed the best form of the Yellow Jesrey hopefuls to finish 4th some 22 seconds behind Cancellara. It will be a good morale boost for the Texan who was smashed by Contador in the final time trial of the 2009 Tour. Still, Contador will not be too worried having finished only a handful of second behind Armstrong, as he would back himself to put minutes rather than seconds into Armstrong come the mountains. The big dissapointment of the day was Luxembourg's Andy Schleck, the man previously viewed as most likely to topple Contador. He had a dog of day finishing 122nd on the stage and losing almost 50 seconds to Armstrong and Contador. Not only did he lose time to his brother Frank, he finished behind Robbie McEwen!?! I am happy to declare already that Andy Schleck cannot and will not win the Tour de France in 2010.

Of the Aussies, Michael Rogers put in a decent performance to finish 14th, 35 seconds behind Cancellara, while Cadel Evans would be slightly dissapointed in finishing 23rd, around 20 seconds behind likes of Armstrong and Contador. He cannot afford to lose time to the likes of those two in time trials if he is thinking of a podium position in Paris.

Tonight's stage is a dead flat affair that travels 223km from Rotterdam to Brussels. The only issue for the peleton will be the fierece winds they are likley to encounter along the dykes of the Dutch lowlands. This could cause havoc in the bunch, causing echelons to firm, and may result in some decisive time gaps as occured on a similar stage at the start of this years Giro. Still, the finish will most likely end in a bunch sprint, and given that it is hard to go past Mark Cavendish for the stage win.

Yellow Jersey - Fabian Cancellara
Green Jersey - Fabian Cancellara
White Jersey - Tony Martin

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