And we’re off…  The 2010 Tour de France has started and what a start!

The Prologue was held amid heavy rain on the streets of Rotterdam. The forecast was for rain in the early evening so many teams opted to send off their better riders earlier rather than latter  (teams are assigned slots to allow them to cover all of their riders on the road with team cars).  This proved costly as the reverse happened with the weather with heavy rain up until close to the end with only the last few riders getting a near dry run.  Unsurprisingly it was the Olympic and World champion Fabina Cancellara who pulled on the yellow jersey at the end of the day with a commanding performance which saw him cross the line in 10 minutes flat.  Second was a surprise, young Tony Martin of HTC-Columbia who lead the leader board for close to three hours until Cancellara beat him.  The German rode in some of the worst weather making his achievement all the more important.  Third was David Millar of Gamin but it was the fourth place rider who garnered all the attention.

Lance Armstrong rode a commanding timetrial, looking back on form and much stronger than last year Tour.  Although it is not a real test of the peloton given the weather conditions, the fact that he beat Contador (6th) is significant.

Other important rides came from Tyler Farrar who did himself many favours given the sprint stages ahead which may lead to him gathering the maillot jeune before the end of the week.  Radioshack had a particularly strong showing with 4 riders inside the top 20.  Below is the top twenty riders.

1 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team Saxo Bank 0:10:00
2 Tony Martin (Ger) Team HTC - Columbia 0:00:10
3 David Millar (GBr) Garmin - Transitions 0:00:20
4 Lance Armstrong (USA) Team Radioshack 0:00:22
5 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Sky Professional Cycling Team 0:00:23
6 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 0:00:27
7 Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin - Transitions 0:00:28
8 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Team Radioshack
9 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Professional Cycling Team 0:00:32
10 Linus Gerdemann (Ger) Team Milram 0:00:35
11 Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing Team
12 Adriano Malori (Ita) Lampre-Farnese Vini
13 Janez Brajkovic (Slo) Team Radioshack
14 Michael Rogers (Aus) Team HTC - Columbia
15 Ruben Plaza Molina (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne 0:00:36
16 Niki Terpstra (Ned) Team Milram
17 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Team Radioshack
18 Vasili Kiryienka (Blr) Caisse d’Epargne 0:00:38
19 Alexander Vinokourov (Kaz) Astana
20 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas-Doimo

Stage 1

After the drama of the short stage, the peloton stretched their legs with a long 223.5km parcours to Brussels.  The day was marred by lots of crashes as an enthusiastic peloton pushed the boundaries.  Several small crashes took out some of the sprint favourites before a huge pileup inside the 1km to go pennant allowed Allesandro Petacchi to steal the stage.  Because the crash happened within 1 km to go, the riders who crashed were all given the same time so no change on GC.