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Cancellara bests the rest in Suisse opener
Those who began to hail Bradley Wiggins as the likely winner of the Tour de France prologue spoke too soon. On Saturday in Olten, reigning world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara (Team CSC) smashed the prologue of the Tour de Suisse and his rivals, sending out a flashing red warning light to his adversaries all over Europe.
"This victory is a confirmation that everything is working right, that I am back to winning form," announced Cancellara, who by default also took the first yellow jersey as race leader.
"The Tour de France [prologue] will be completely different, because the roads will be larger, and there will be longer straightaways. But I will fight for the maillot jaune; London can come," he said, with a wry smile on his face.
Prologues are often decided in fractions of seconds, but not this day. Over just 3.8 kilometers, Cancellara's time of 4:20.90 was a massive eight seconds faster than the next-best competitor, Lampre-Fondital's Daniele Bennati, and nine quicker than Caisse d'Epargne's Ivan Gutiérrez.
"This morning, I reconnoitered the course eight times, so I was prepared," Cancellara said of the twisting, highly technical parcours. "But what surprised me were the conditions this afternoon; the speed I was going was so much higher than when I tried this morning."
In fact, the same eight-second margin between first and second separated second to 31st place - not indicative of the strength of the field, but indicative of the speed, strength and skill of Cancellara, and even though he doesn't say it now, a sure sign he's in top form.
"I am not yet at 100 percent, there is still margin to improve," said Cancellara. "It's taken me some time to get back to my best.
"Last year, I thought for sure after my victory in Paris-Roubaix I would make the Tour de France team, but I was really disappointed not to be selected. Then, I managed to get myself back into top form for the world [time trial] championships in Salzburg; after that, it was the birth of my daughter, so I had a lot of emotions, so many things running through my head.
"That was the reason why I delayed the start of my training till January [this year], and that was the reason why my results weren't what many people expected in spring. So I'm a little surprised everything has worked out well."
Fresh, clean start
With last year's Tour de Suisse podium - namely, Jan Ullrich, Koldo Gil and Jörg Jaksche - all embroiled in the Puerto controversy, the 2007 edition was keen to get off to a fresh, clean beginning, pun intended.
Conditions were picture perfect, with the mercury 73 degrees Fahrenheit (23 Celsius) and 25-35 kph winds blowing from the southwest, allowing a tailwind for the back end of the course. While not overly strenuous in terms of elevation, it was no walk in the park, the 3.8km parcours loaded with tight, twisting bends, and mostly on narrow roads.
A mid-afternoon start kicked off proceedings in Olten, and at 15:45, Volksbank's Florian Stalder was the first rider off the mark, his time of 4 minutes 52 seconds nothing to write home about, even if he was a local.
Three quarters of an hour later, CSC's champion from Paris-Roubaix, Stuart O'Grady, slashed a good 20 seconds off the first mark of day with a time of 4:30.57, but it stood for no more than 30 minutes as Lampre's Daniele Bennati stopped the clock at 4:28.86. Another sprinter, three-time Tour de France green jersey champion Robbie McEwen, was less at ease, 10 seconds slower, although his eyes were more likely focused on the sprint stages in the days ahead.
In fact, it took till the last 10 riders before Bennati's time was threatened, first by Caisse d'Epargne's Ivan Gutiérrez, who was just 43/100ths of a second slower. A few minutes later, Discovery Channel's Janez Brajkovic was looking good until he overcooked a corner and dived into the pastures nearby, but the young Slovenian wasn't there long enough to feed the cows, and got up almost as fast as he fell down.
But everyone knew the one to watch was the second-to-last rider to leave, CSC's Fabian Cancellara.
And just as at the world time trial championships nine months ago, one saw a winner from the moment he rolled down the start ramp, pedaling an extraordinarily high cadence, using an extraordinarily large gear. Watching Cancellara was watching perfection, and a scorching time of 4:20.90 proved it.
T-Mobile's Tour de France man Michael Rogers was the last to arrive, but unlike Cancellara, Rogers lacks the ability to excel in the prologue as he does in the longer time trials, finishing 17 seconds off in 38th place.
The road ahead
Leaving Olten just after half-past one Sunday afternoon, the Tour de Suisse peloton will embark on a what is likely to be a relatively painless 157.2km journey to Lucerne. However, for those banking on a sprint finale, it may be worth saving some cash; a Category 3, followed by a Cat. 4 climb in the last 25km, has the words “late breakaway” written all over it, and possibly on the plans of more than a few directeurs sportifs without sprinters in their lineups.
Tour of Switzerland
Prologue
1. Fabian Cancellara (Swi), CSC, 3.8km in 4:20
2. Daniel Bennati (I), Lampre-Fondital, at 0:08
3. José Ivan Gutierrez (Sp), Caisse d'Epargne, at 0:09
4. William Bonnet (F), Crédit Agricole, at 0:10
5. Stuart O'Grady (Aus), CSC, s.t.
6. Vladimir Gusev (Rus), Discovery Channel, s.t.
7. Martin Elmiger (Swi), Ag2r, at 0:11
8. Benoît Vaugrenard (F), Française des Jeux, at 0:12
9. Stefan Schumacher (G), Gerolsteiner, s.t.
10. Leif Hoste (B), Predictor-Lotto, s.t.
