Rotterdam Kicks It Off, Tour de France 2010 Prologue

At precisely 4:15 pm today, Iban Mayo a Spanish cyclist riding for Footen-Servetto began pedalling an 8.9 kilometer prologue course winding through the wet, windy and overcast streets of downtown Rotterdam to the delight of thousands of screaming, clapping fans, kicking off the long awaited start of the 2010 Tour de France.

With large freighters, yachts and pleasure craft passing under the bridges of Rotterdam, this picturesque city got a good opportunity to show itself off, beyond the oft held impression of simply a working class industrial port city of Europe, albeit a massive one.  With all of the partying that occurred in the streets here last night, with the Netherlands’ World Cup victory over Brazil, it’s a bit of a testament to the popularity of cycling in this part of the world  that so many showed up, many a bit hung-over no doubt, to cheer their favorites on.  The streets were lined 5 to 10 deep in places, sometimes providing a nice shield for the riders against the winds, with not just casual fans, but fans wearing their favorite kits, routing for their favorite riders and teams (which for many was Team Rabobank), causing cheers to reverberate throughout the city when one of those cyclists flew by.  One was left with the impression of an unusually knowledgeable crowd for a sporting event.

Though the course was relatively flat and not very technical, with only a couple of beautifully engineered bridges across the Maas River providing the slightest inclines on the route, the consistently wet roads from a  light rain that started just before the race which lasted almost all day kept everyone on their toes.  The riders slowed dramatically on the 90 degree turns and immediately jumped back out of the saddle to regain the lost momentum – with no one wanting to fall and get hurt on the first day.  Many were unhappy with their ability to negotiate the turns in the wet the way they had planned in previous training runs.  When asked to rate his performance, David Zabriske commented, I give myself 8.5 on the straightaways, but 0 on the turns!  He was not alone, no one could take them well.  The rain never let up till the very end, and so the strong accelerators were rewarded on the day.

Tony Martin, in the unenviable position of starting 11th on the day out of some 200 riders really laid one down, as expected, posting a time of 10 minutes and 10 seconds that no one was able to surpass, that is, until the very last rider came to crash the party.  Some 50 riders after Martin, Levi Leipheimer took the starting gate and posted a respectable 10:28, just 18 seconds off the pace, although he was 2 hundredths of a second behind Tyler Ferrar of Garmin Transitions, and those times held for quite awhile, until Gerald Thomas of Team Sky drove through the rain and posted a time of 10:23 to sit in second.  But no one believed those times would hold with such big names yet to come.  David Millar of Garmin then posted a 10:20 to bump everyone a bit, but still everyone was waiting for the big names.  And they didn’t disappoint.

The rain finally stopped, the skies cleared somewhat, and the roads started drying ever so slightly before the last 15 riders took their positions, but it provided only the slightest advantage.    The anticipation when Lance took off was palpable, even on foreign soil the man commands unreal popularity.  You could not walk the streets of Rotterdam without seeing pictures, banners and posters of him everywhere.   After Lance got on the road, Cancellara followed and then Contador.  Even though the course was short, at one point Lance, Cancellara and Contador, along with Ivan Basso and Juan Antonio Flecha  were all on the course at the same time driving hard to the same finish line noticeably faster than the crowd had gotten used to with previous efforts.  Cancellara looked particular strong out of the gate.

Lance was 3rd fastest at the split, but then came Cancellara who was exactly tied with Tony Martin at the same split letting everyone know at that point that he came to ensure that Saxo bank was wearing the yellow jersey after this first stage.  Contador was a little slower at the split and at that point it became clear that it was Fabian’s race to lose.  He didn’t.  Cancellara showed why he’s the world time trial champion, posting a 10:00 flat beating everyone by 10 seconds.

So the unofficial standings (at the time of this writing) were:
1.     Fabian Cancellara Saxo Bank
2.    Tony Martin – HTC – Columbia
3.    David Millar – Garmin Transitions
4.    Lance Armstrong – Team RadioShack
5.    Geraint  Thomas – Sky
6.    Alberto Contador – Astana
7.    Tyler Farrar – Garmin – Transitions
8.    Levi Leipheimer – Team RadioShack
9.    Edvald Boasson Hagen – Sky
10.    Linus Gerdemann – Milram

The cream rose to the top, the best riders showed once again their ability to crank out impressive rides against the world’s top competition, and Team RadioShack has 2 riders in the top ten.  Lance looked really strong.  He looks extremely fit and ready to challenge for number a possible 8th win.  With no one hurt, everyone still in the hunt, and the team’s prospects looking excellent this race will provide a lot of great viewing this month.  Hope you’ve been able to carve out a bunch of TV viewing time this month, or you’re going to miss a really exciting one!

More Prologue results

By George Hurst, staff writer
3 July 2010 Rotterdam