Dan Martin and Nicolas Roche have both gotten off to good starts in the Tour de France today, limiting their losses well in the opening prologue time trial in Liege.
Martin came home in 54th place, some 24 seconds down on stage winner Fabian Cancellara. Roche was just one place and one second further back, coming home in 55th place; 24 seconds down.
That is a very positive start by both riders, neither of whom excel at time trials and for whom a short sharp prologue is something that must be endured and where losses must be curbed as much as possible.
Cancellera simply stormed to victory today, taking the win by a full seven seconds from Bradley Wiggins. The Swiss powerhouse stormed around the 6.4km course in 7:13.
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Defending champion Cadel Evans was in 13th place, some 17 seconds down while world TT champion Tony Martin suffered a puncture and lost 23 seconds, coming home in 44th place.
Prologue TT Results
1. Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Nissan) 7:13
2. Bradley Wiggins (Sky Procycling) @7 secs
3. Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) same
4. Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing) @ 10 secs
5. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky Procycling) @ 11 secs
6. Brett Lancaster (Orica GreenEdge)
7. Patrick Gretsch (Argos – Shimano) @ 12 secs
8. Denis Menchov (Katusha Team) @ 13 secs
9. Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing) same
10. Andriy Grivko (Astana Pro Team) @ 15 secs
54. Dan Martin (Garmin-Barracuda-Sharp) @24 secs
55. Nicolas Roche (Ag2r La Mondiale) @25 secs
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