Another Grand Depart. And the ten trillion comments speak well of the enthusiasm around here. Not much to say about the race itself, being a short time trial and all. It was a bit technical, which affected a few guys pretty severely, but the rain held off, and in the end the leaderboard looks a lot like what you'd expect of a time trial:
- Fabian Cancellara, Saxo Bank
- Alberto Contador, Astana, at 0.18
- Brad Wiggins, Garmin, at 0.19
- Andreas Kloden, Astana, at 0.22
- Cadel Evans, Silence-Lotto, at 0.23
- Levi Leipheimer, Astana, at 0.30
- Roman Kreuziger, Liquigas, at 0.32
- Tony Martin, Columbia, at 0.33
- Vincenzo Nibali, Liquigas, at 0.37
- Lance Armstrong, Astana, at 0.40
Obviously that's your GC as well. Chat away!
[updated] Good catch in the comments: the two biggest losers today were Kim Kirchen (1.57 down) and Denis Menchov (@ 1.31). Neither of them should have had trouble with this course, so it begs a little sleuthing as to why they were so bad. Menchov's press people are saying he just had a bad day, after a month of no racing, which sounds plausible. As for Kirchen, I am not seeing anything yet. This is a pretty abnormal result, though he's had a pretty abnormal year.