If the lawns of SW19 belong to Roger Federer, the streets of London were the
property of his countryman Fabian Cancellara yesterday. “It is a good time
to be Swiss,” said Cancellara after claiming the most coveted prize in his
sport – the yellow jersey of the Tour de France.
The world time-trial champion produced a stunning finale to a glorious day for
the world’s greatest bike race on its return to Britain. The 187th of 189
riders to start, his target was the 9min 3sec set by Germany’s Andreas
Kloden, one of the favourites for the overall title, and Cancellara beat it
by 13 seconds, a huge margin over such a short distance. He is unlikely to
win another stage in the next three weeks, but when it mattered he showed
incredible power from the start.
The crowds lining the route gave their loudest cheers for the British rider
Bradley Wiggins, who specialises in short races against the clock such as
yesterday’s. But the Londoner could not make the impact he had hoped.
Wiggins, 27, who won Olympic gold on the track in Athens in 2004, had so
much wanted to celebrate the Tour’s arrival in Britain for the first time
since 1994 with victory in a race which began in Whitehall, passed through
Hyde Park and finished in the Mall.
After moving up from eighth place at the intermediate time check, Wiggins just
could not find enough to overtake Kloden, who had set a tough time as the
150th rider to start.
Wiggins ended the day in fourth place, 23 seconds behind the brilliant
Cancellara who showed outstanding smoothness as he took the corners to
overtake Kloden’s time and win in 8min 50sec. “Switzerland is at the head of
sport today,” said the 26-year-old Cancellara. “We won the America’s Cup,
now I have the yellow jersey and I am hoping that Roger Federer will win a
fifth Wimbledon title. It is a big time for sport in our country.”
Wiggins was remarkably upbeat despite not achieving his dream. “What a
fabulous start to the race we have had,” he said. “The guys are saying it
has been one of the best starts to the Tours that they have had.
“I never expected this magnitude of people, so God knows what the Olympics
will be like. This has been fantastic to be a part of. This makes me proud
to be part of the Tour de France. This is how the Tour de France should be,
not like last year. It wasn’t a proud thing to be part of last year.”
In the days before the start of the race last year, four of the top five
riders from the 2005 Tour were excluded from the race after being linked to
a Spanish drugs investigation.
Cancellara triumphed for a CSC team that is still coming to terms with the
absence of its owner and manager Bjarne Riis, the Danish winner of the Tour
in 1996, who chose not to be here having admitted to using banned substances
to achieve his triumph 11 years ago. “It is hard he is not here,” said
Cancellara. “But it is perhaps better he is not as there might be too much
attention on the negative side. Our message is to train hard and to do our
maximum.”
Among the other Britons, David Millar, a rider who has won three stages in the
past, and indeed served a two-year ban for taking drugs, finished 33 seconds
behind the winner in 13th place, while Mark Cavendish, Britain’s new young
star on his Tour debut, was 69th. He finished 52 seconds adrift but his
moment might arrive this afternoon in the first stage when he is determined
to be at the business end of the expected sprint finish as the opening leg
from London reaches its climax in Canterbury. Geraint Thomas, a 21-year-old
Welshman, finished a respectable 45th and Charlie Wegelius, who is better
known as a climber, came 91st.
As Cancellara said: “It was perhaps even more stressful for the English
riders; we are in London and, as we have seen, the popularity of the event
is huge.”
It is one of the oddities of the Tour that a rider who makes an impression in
this opener might never be heard of again as the competition begins for
real, in some people’s eyes, with the first stage which will take place on a
120-mile route from London to Kent today. Indeed, the Tour organisers have
decided that next year the race will start with a traditional road stage
from Brest, in Brittany, to allow more competitors a chance of taking the
yellow jersey.
But take nothing away from what the riders had to put themselves through
yesterday on the 4.9mile course. It was a venue normally reserved for the
finale of the London Marathon, but if that day in April is all about
endurance, power, and strength of reserves, this occasion was all about
explosiveness and the need to reach speeds of 35mph as quickly as possible.
The fast men had to wait their turn, with Millar and Wiggins having to absorb
the whole enormity of the race being in their home country for almost three
hours after the London mayor Ken Livingstone waved a white flag and Endrico
Degano became the first rider on the course.
It was fitting that Degano should start. The Italian won the final stage of
the Tour of Britain in London in 2004, but that was in a sprint finish
rather than the disciplined race-against-the-clock which yesterday was all
about.
Degano, 31, who rides for the Barloworld team, was in a no-win position. The
honour of going first allowed him to set the standard, but with riders
starting at minute intervals behind him, his lead lasted just seconds.
Daniel Navarro, of Spain, the third rider to start, quickly followed through
to take the lead by 33 seconds.
With this event being decided by the smallest of time margins, danger travels
hand in hand with speed – no matter the experience or the quality of the
rider as the Australian Stuart O’Grady, the 40th starter, showed. O’Grady
was in his national team pursuit squad which broke the world record 14 years
ago and if it was his decision to take a few risks in exchange for potential
glory on this opening day it did not work. He clipped a barrier and crashed
heavily in the second part of the race, tearing his clothes as he overshot a
left-handed turn. He made it home, but in 35th position on a stage where he
was determined to be among the contenders. Indeed, O’Grady had established
the quickest intermediate check time at just over halfway which he reached
in 5min 26sec.
The race and the drama was hotting up as the American Dave Zabriskie took the
lead in 9min 23sec – yet once more it did not last for long. Within two
riders, he was back in second as Vladmir Karpets, of Russia, hit an average
of 32 mph to move in front with 9min 17sec. But the real speed merchants
were just waiting their turn and, of them, nobody was faster than
Cancellara.
Results
1. Fabian Cancellara, Switzerland, Team CSC, 8 minutes, 50 seconds.
2. Andreas Kloeden, Germany, Astana, 13 seconds behind.
3. George Hincapie, United States, Discovery Channel, :23.
4. Bradley Wiggins, Britain, Cofidis, same time.
5. Vladimir Gusev, Russia, Discovery Channel, :25.
6. Vladimir Karpets, Russia, Discovery Channel, :26.
7. Alexandre Vinokourov, Kazakhstan, Astana, :30.
8. Thomas Dekker, Netherlands, Rabobank, :31.
9. Manuel Quinziato, Italy, Liquigas, :32.
10. Benoit Vaugrenard, France, Francaise des Jeux, same time.
11. David Zabriskie, United States, Team CSC, same time.
12. Jose Ivan Gutierrez, Spain, Caisse d'Epargne, :33.
13. David Millar, Britain, Saunier Duval-Prodir, same time.
14. Mikel Astarloza, Spain, Euskaltel-Euskadi, same time.
15. Alberto Contador, Spain, Discovery Channel, :35
16. Andrey Kashechkin, Kazakhstan, Astana, same time.
17. Cadel Evans, Australia, Predictor-Lotto, :36
18. William Bonnet, France, Credit Agicole, same time.
19. Sylvain Chavanel, France, Cofidis, same time.
20. Michael Rogers, Australia, T-Mobile, :37.
Also
26. Levi Leipheimer, United States, Discovery Channel, :40.
29. Tomas Vaitkus, Lithuania, Discovery Channel, :42.
37. Sergio Paulinho, Portugal, Discovery Channel, :44.
48. Egoi Martinez, Spain, Discovery Channel, :47.
50. Yaroslav Popovych, Ukraine, Discovery Channel, :48.
71. Benjamin Noval Gonzalez, Spain, Discovery Channel, :53.
71. Christopher Horner, United States, Predictor-Lotto, same time.
75. Christian Vandevelde, United States, Team CSC, same time.
131. Fred Rodriguez, United States, Predictor-Lotto, 1:05
