February 17/08 11:30pm EST - Tour of California: Prologue report and photos

Posted by Editoress on 2/17/08.

Photos

The Amgen Tour of California opened under near perfect conditions today in Palo Alto before a substantial crowd that was considerably larger than in San Francisco in previous years (crowd estimates are not yet available). Levi Leipheimer (Astana) had his two year winning streak broken, and will miss the opportunity to roll into his hometown of Santa Rosa in the leader's jersey, after world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara (Team CSC) blazed the 3.4 kilometre circuit.

The course started in front of City Hall and headed east for two blocks before two quick lefts and a long drag race to the west. From the downtown the riders went through an underpass and then into the Stanford University grounds along the appropriately named Palm Avenue, a wide boulevard lined with - you guessed it - palm trees. At the end of the boulevard the riders made a wide sweeping counterclockwise circuit for the final kilometre and finished back on Palm.

David Zabriski (CSC) set the first sub-four minute time at 3:59.584, which stood for 22 riders before Zabriskie's team mate, Swedish national champion Gustav Larsson, knocked three-tenths of a second off it. American Tyler Farrar (Slipstream) put his squad in the lead, taking nearly three seconds off of Larsson's time. The young Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen (High Road) came close to Farrar (and eventually finished fifth to take the U23 Jersey), but it wasn't until the final 20 riders that he was displaced from the top spot.

Bradley Wiggins (High Road), one of the pre-race favourites, knocked half a second off of Farrar's time, but then Cancellara, fourth from last came flying through in a time of 3:51.211, over four and a half seconds in front. The final two riders - George Hincapie (High Road) and Leipheimer weren't even close, with Hincapie finishing 13th, 10 seconds back and Leipheimer fourth, and six seconds.

The two Canadians in the race had mixed results, with Dominique Rollin (Toyota United) a very respectable 24th (14 seconds down) and Keven Lacombe 96th at 25 seconds.

Leipheimer - "A prologue like this [flat], combined with the best riders in the world made it a hard day for me."

Farrar - "I was certainly pleasantly surprised. I knew my form was good, and it is a good course for me. Since my number one priority is the Classics, I have early season fitness, and for me this was a very nice course. My objectives in the race are the field sprints, so this is a confirmation of my fitness, and I have some confidence for the next few stages."

Cancellara - "We [the team] have been training in California for more than two weeks before this race, and for me I think that this shows that it was my best training camp ever. We did a lot of hours, a lot of quality training, and to win here in Palo Alto, wearing my beautiful rainbow jersey is perfect."

"It is shot so, yes, you really have to 'kick ass'. A lot of people start too hard in the first few metres, because even though it looks short, the end is long; the last kilometre is the longest because you have so much pain in your legs. You feel really bad, but good when you win. With [the rainbow jersey] I feel obligated to win, when I go into a time trial I have to win."

"Our results show that our [anti-doping] control system is correct, and that we are doing the right thing."

The racing begins on the road tomorrow with the first stage from Sausalito to Levi Leipheimer's hometown of Santa Rosa, the same first stage as the first two editions of the race. The race begins at 11:00 am local time and is expected to finish at approximately 3:00 pm.


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