Tour prologue: Fabian in yellow

Oh la la,the Tour has begun,with its 3 weeks of daily pain,excitement,drama and challenges. The challenge on which almost (I stress the 'almost' part) everyone is focused right now is the duel between Contador and Armstrong but,don't worry,me is not going to focus on that too much in my posts.
After 2009 Vuelta and the 2010 Giro,also the Tour this year started from Holland and,in particular,it started from Rotterdam (whose harbour gives job to 300 000 people,a thing that I've discovered today and that I've found pretty impressing).The parcours of the prologue was 8.9 kms long.
The race was influenced by the weather for a lot of time.Toni Martin (whose shape is really,really good) set the fastest time early in the afternoon.For a lot of time behind the German policeman there was the very promising Geraint Thomas of team Sky.The captain of this team,Bradley Wiggins, disappointed many people,although he might have decided to take it easy today and give his best in the following stages. The asphalt in fact was wet for a lot of time during the race and so many GC contenders (like Kreuziger) decided not to ride full gas and just focused on arriving safe to the finish-line.
Two riders,Manuel Cardoso and Mathias Frank,crashed during the race.On a Dutch website I could see the pictures of these riders after the crashes and,believe me,they didn't look good at all.Poor Frank,23 year-old (and one of my favourite young riders) broke a thumb,while I have no news about Cardoso yet.
While time kept on passing,the GC contenders began their race.Frank Schleck was one of the first 'big' to begin the race and his time immediately looked pretty high.Andy (with the jersey of Luxembourg TT champion on and with some bruises on his knee) did worse.

The last 3 riders to face the 8.9 kms long parcours were Armstrong,Cancellara and Contador.They all rode very well (the roads were a bit drier while they were riding) and Cancellara managed to win the race with a great time (10 minutes).

Armstrong came 4th,with a 22" delay from Cancellara and an advantage of 5" on Contador.Many have pointed out this thing and said that Armstrong has already given 'strong signals' and that his form is clearly incredible.Now,I'd like you to reflect on the following thought of mine for a few seconds: many say that Armstrong has the 'form of his life' right now and could even defeat Contador.And they base their thoughts on what they saw during Tour of Luxembourg and Tour de Suisse.Now,Frank Schleck went better than Lance in those races.Does this mean that he'll win the Tour without problems? Let's hope so then (and let's prepare the champagne)!

Anyway,back to more serious things: here's the GC as it is if we consider just the main contenders of the race (I apologise for the possible mathematic mistakes).

Lance Armstrong (USA)

Alberto Contador (Spa) 0:05
Levi Leipheimer (USA) 0:06
Janez Brajkovic (Slo) 0:13
Michael Rogers (Aus)
Andreas Klöden (Ger) 0:14
Roman Kreuziger (Cze) 0:16
Luis León Sánchez Gil (Spa) 0:17
Cadel Evans (Aus)
Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) 0:26
Robert Gesink (Ned) 0:29
Christopher Horner (USA) 0:30
Carlos Sastre (Spa) 0:32
Ivan Basso (Ita) 0:33
Denis Menchov (Rus) 0:34
Samuel Sanchez (Spa)
Bradley Wiggins (GBr)
Fränk Schleck (Lux) 0:35
Andy Schleck (Lux) 0:47

So,the numbers say: Andy lost 42" from Contador (his main rival as far as mountains are concerned) and Frank lost 30". "I admit I had a shit day",Andy has just tweeted and,looking at numbers,it seems that he's right.Actually,immediately after crossing the line Fangirl saw him nodding his head and looking disappointed.Anyway,I don't think we should get desperate about today's result.42" are nothing,after the first day.I mean,tomorrow's stage may be very tricky (there could be a lot of wind) and,if he pays attention,Andy could already gain some seconds on his adversaries.So,let's not be too pessimistic.And then: it's better to have a shit day in the prologue than in the 3rd week,right?

As far as Frank is concerned,he showed that he's improved a lot in TTs.I think that the brothers are 2 of the best climbers out there together with Contador,Gesink and Basso,and they didn't lose a lot of time from them (I mean,Frank almost got the same time as Wiggins,Menchov and Samu Sanchez!).After all,as a big skyscraper in Rotterdam reminded us this afternoon,there are more than 3000 kms between the Dutch city and Paris,so the chances of gaining seconds won't lack.
As said,tomorrow stage (which is totally flat) may become very tricky if there's a strong wind.And considering what happened during the Dutch stages of the Giro,well,I think we'll have some fun tomorrow.

One of today's surprises was Adriano Malori,excellent 12th.The winner,as said,was Fabian Cancellara,who got another yellow jersey to add to his collection.His victory was everything but a surprise,especially if we consider that Fabian won 3 Tour prologues in the last 4 years (London 2007,Monaco 2009,Rotterdam 2010).'Why didn't he win in 2008?',I hear you ask.Well,simple: in 2008 there was no prologue at the Tour.

GIRO D'ITALIA FEMMINILE:

As promised,in these days miss Fede will try to pay more attention to women's cycling.The occasion of talking about it is offered by the Giro d'Italia Donne,which this year presents an extremely tough parcours.

The first two stages were flat and they were won by Ina-Yoko Teutenberg,the German rider of Columbia.Yesterday a jounalist told her: "You're as strong as Cavendish".Ina's reply was: "No,I'm better than him".In fact,so far in 2010 Ina has won 18 (18!) races.Chapeau.

Second in today's stage (just like in yesterday's one) was Giorgia Bronzini.Yesterday's 3rd was Kristen Wild,while today's 3rd was Marianne Vos (who also wears the best young rider jersey).

As far as the GC is concerned,the leader is Ina Teutenberg (who else?).

With 1 km to go this afternoon there was a crash involving some strong athletes (Hausler and Pooley,for example),but the time gap between them and the stage winner wasn't considered in the new GC.Tomorrow's stage is a 16.9 kms long TT.