The Prologue

The 2006 Tour is well under way and once again it doesn't disappoint. You might have thought to yourself, "Without Lance the Tour just can't be as good." But with Friday's suspension it has left the field wide open for a new Tour hero, and I'll be here to tell you about him.

This year's Prologue was a very short 5 mile individual time trial. Because of the ultra short distance, the prologue was basically open for any rider to win, especially the sprinters. As a quick recap, the sprinters are the riders who enter the Tour to win the Green (sprint) Jersey and do not stand a chance of winning the Tour overall aka the General Category (GC). But more on that in another post.

In fact, this year's prologue did go to a sprinter. The big Norwegian for team Credit Agricole (C.A.), Thor Hushovd. He finished the sprint in a blazing 8 minutes 17 seconds! And just .023 seconds behind him, my favorite, Big George Hincapie from Team Discovery.

For a little prologue drama, another Tour favorite American Floyd Landis from Phonak was late for his start time. In time trials, the riders are evenly spaced throughout the course by their mandatory start time. As the digital beep for Floyd's clock started its countdown, Floyd was no where in site. But an excruciatingly long 6 seconds later, Floyd was in the gate and starting his time trial. He finished in 9th place, 9 seconds out of first place which is an unfortunate start considering he has a real chance to win the Tour overall.

And finally Dave Zabriskie, the winner of last year's prologue, finished in 3rd place only 4 seconds behind Hushovd.

It was a quick race and even quicker recap but there will be plenty more to come as Stage 1 was just as exciting.