- HOT TOPICS:
- The new VeloNews.com (BETA)
Discovery's Gusev takes Tour of Germany opener
Discovery Channel's Vladimir Gusev won the 5.5km prologue of the Tour of Germany in Dusseldorf on Tuesday.
The 24-year-old time-trial specialist timed 6minutes 42.61seconds and finished ahead of Linus Gerdemann (T-Mobile) and German national time trial champion Sebastian Lang (Gerolsteiner).
Defending Tour of Germany winner Levi Leipheimer (Gerolsteiner) finished in 111th place, 42 seconds off the Russian's pace, though he raced cautiously because of the persistent rain and strong winds.
Gusev, who has been a professional since 2004 and joined the Discovery team at the beginning of the year, had come into the race on the back of his most prestigious success so far, the Tour of Saxony at the end of July.
Like Leipheimer another former winner of the race Patrik Sinkewitz did not challenge the time of the winner as the German - who is the team leader of the T-Mobile team in the absence of Tour de France third Andreas Kloden and the sacked Jan Ullrich - finished more than 19sec off the pace.
However another former T-Mobile star Alexandre Vinokourov laid down his challenge early as the Kazakh - who missed out on the Tour de France when his Astana team was withdrawn on the eve of the race because of a doping scandal - finished just nine seconds off the pace.
Wednesday's first stage will see the 176 riders tackle the 198.2km ride from Dusseldorf to Bielefeld which promises to be one for the sprinters.
