Key moments

14:43 - Top 5

The top 5 of the prologue is:

1. Lars Boom, 6.18

2. Alexandre Vinokourov, at 0.02

3. Bradley Wiggins, at 0.05

4. John Degenkolb, at 0.06

5. Blel Kadri, at 0.08

14:43 - Brajkovic 17th

Lars Boom wins the prologue of the Dauphiné ahead of Vinokourov and Wiggins. Brajkovic scores the 17th best time.

14:35 - Vinokourov is second place

Alexandre Vinokourov positioned himself in second place between Boom and Wiggins, while Janez Brajkovic is the last man on the road.

14:34 - 51.41km/h for Boom

The average speed of Lars Boom is 51.41km/h. What a ride!

14:32 - Boom exceptional!

Lars Boom scored a fantastic time! With 6.18, he bettered Wiggins by around one second per kilometre!!!

14:30 - 50.63km/h for Wiggins

Bradley Wiggins’ average speed is 50.63km/h.

14:25 - Wiggins in the lead

Hot favourite Bradley Wiggins meets the expectation: 6.23. He takes the lead of the race provisionally with 12 riders left.

14:24 - Posthuma comes close

44 hundreds of a second are missing for Joost Posthuma to equal Blel Kadri. The Frenchman keeps the lead.

14:18 - Not a good day for Westra

Lieuwe Westra wasn’t at his ease like at the Tour of Belgium. He scored the provisional nineteenth best time.

14:14 - Kadri talks

Blel Kadri comments on Francetelevisions: "I’m really happy to set the best time for now. I didn’t expect it. I did reconnoitre the course this morning with Christophe Riblon who is a specialist and he explained to me how to ride. I was scared of the rain but it went well. I hope to stay in the lead but there are big favourites yet to race."

14:13 - Kadri takes the lead

Blel Kadri is the first rider to go faster than Cyril Lemoine: 6.26!

14:03 - Gesink has good form

Robert Gesink has clocked the thirteenth provisional best time in 6.34. It means the Dutchman has good form and will be a man to watch in the mountain stages of the Dauphiné.

14:01 - Paris-Roubaix winner on the move

Johan van Summeren, the winner of Paris-Roubaix, is back in action on French soil!

13:57 - The sun is up

It’s now sunny on the finishing line with a good chance for the weather conditions to be perfect when the favourites will be racing. Tour of Belgium prologue winner Lieuwe Westra is scheduled to start at 2.14pm.

13:49 - Moinard says the course isn’t dry yet

BMC’s Amaël Moinard told Francetelevisions after completing the course: "In the last two kilometres, the road is dry but at the beginning, the uphill and the downhill sections are wet, so it’s still not good for the riders who want to contest the victory today."

13:46 - Dumoulin has tried to beat Hinault

Samuel Dumoulin has used a normal road bike instead of a time trial bike because his goal was to get the polka dot jersey, but he failed: he has the second provisional best time at the top of the côte de Bonrieux with 1.15. Sébastien Hinault remains the virtual king of the mountains with 1.12.

13:43 - Luis Leon on his way

Spanish champion for time trial Luis Leon Sanchez is on his way. He remembers Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne for his second place at stage 8 of the Tour de France last year. The Murcian is looking at bringing Rabobank his first victory of the year.

13:42 - No more rain

As British rider Daniel Lloyd from Garmin-Cervélo is on his way, the rain has stopped in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne and the road is drying up again.

13:35 - Best TV coverage for the Dauphiné

The Criterium du Dauphiné is getting its best quality TV coverage ever this year, as Francetelevisions has added more cameras and zooming systems to make it as beautiful to watch as the Tour de France. Francetelevisions’ head of sport Daniel Bilalian revealed to Le Dauphiné newspaper that TV production for the race has a cost of one million euro. “We’re close to perfection in the way of filming the sport of cycling”, Bilalian said.

13:26 - Roche talks about the weather conditions

Questioned by Francetelevisions, Nicolas Roche who crossed the line with the eighteenth best time said: "The rain didn’t play to my advantage. For winning today, either someone had to ride on dry roads or to take enormous risks."

13:14 - Boasson Hagen affected by the rain

Norwegian time trial champion Edvald Boasson Hagen couldn’t ride at his best because of the wet road. He came in seventh place, provisionnally, with 6.33. Cyril Lemoine’s leadership remains alive one hour after the Frenchman rode the course under dry conditions.

13:09 - Sivtsov looks tired

Belarus rider Kanstantsin Sivtsov looks pretty tired after having finished the Tour of Italy in tenth place overall last Sunday. He scored the 82nd best time out of the 85 finishers when he crossed the line.

13:02 - No pressure at RadioShack

RadioShack’s directeur sportif Alain Gallopin told letour.fr that the pressure is not on defending champion Janez Brajkovic who finished third in the prologue of the Dauphiné last year in Evian: “For now he’s very relaxed. It’s not time for pressure yet. He’s in good shape. The week of racing will be long but we have our plan…”

13:00 - Light rain in the air

While Simon Gerrans crosses the line in 6.36, it starts raining again in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne.

12:52 - Reda also finished the Giro

An eleventh rider among the 175 starters of the Dauphiné has completed the Tour of Italy: Francesco Reda (Quick Step) who hails from Cosenza and is the only pro cyclist originating from Calabria.

12:46 - Tony Martin won’t be the winner

Tony Martin was one of the favourites today but he only clocked the sixth provisional time in 6.33.

12:44 - In the press today

The Le Dauphiné newspaper has an interview with defending champion Janez Brajkovic. “My win at the Dauphiné last year has had a huge impact on my career”, the rider from RadioShack explained. “Beating Alberto Contador who is the best rider in the world has boosted my confidence. I’ve really liked this victory. I come back with a different approach this year. It’s part of my preparation for the Tour de France and I believe it’s the best preparation. I’ll try to stay with the best riders but without going beyond my limits. I’ll test my condition in the time trial in Grenoble and in one mountain stage. A top 5 finish would be nice. I only resumed training on May 20. Ma condition is definitely not equivalent to the one I had last year.”

12:43 - Lemoine is a true specialist

Cyril Lemoine came seventh in the prologue of the Tour of Belgium, won last week by Dutchman Lieuwe Westra who is another hot favourite today.

12:25 - Lemoine at the top

French specialist of prologues Cyrille Lemoine from Saur-Sojasun set a new best provisional time in 6.29.

12:19 - Change of lead

Paul Martens is the new provisional leader after his team-mate Maarten Tjallingii from Rabobank. He clocked 6.30. Jean-Christophe Péraud also bettered Tjallingii’s time with 6.33.

12:18 - Flecha goes high

Juan Antonio Flecha (Sky) comes close to the best time held by Maarten Tjallingii. He’s second in the same second: 6.34.

12:15 - Casar like at home

Sandy Casar must have a special feeling in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne. Last year he won stage 8 of the Tour de France in this stage ahead of Luis Leon Sanchez. He scored the fourth best time of this prologue in 6.37.

12:10 - Hinault gave it all in the climb

Sébastien Hinault gave everything he could in the climb and clocked in 1.12 at the intermediate time check at the top of the côte de Bondrieux. The experienced rider from Ag2r-La Mondiale would like to get the polka dot jersey today.

12:07 - Ten riders coming from the Giro

10 riders lining up at the Dauphiné have taken part in the Tour of Italy that finished exactly one week ago: Dario Cataldo and Kevin Seeldrayers (Quick Step), Kanstantsin Sivtsov (HTC-Highroad), Przemyslaw Niemec (Lampre), Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha), Mirko Selvaggi, Frederik Veuchelen and Maxim Belkov (Vacansoleil), Laurent Didier and Volodymyr Gustov (Saxo Bank-SunGard).

12:05 - Lavenu describes the course

“This is a pretty technical prologue, with a few round-abouts”, Ag2r-La Mondiale’s team manager Vincent Lavenu told Le Dauphiné. “It’s a course for explosive riders able to take the curves very fast.” Dutchman Lars Boom from Rabobank is exactly this kind of rider. Maarten Tjallingii’s strong performance will be indicative for the winner of the prologue of the 2010 Paris-Nice.

12:01 - Tjallingii betters Zabriskie

David Zabriskie didn’t ride faster than Geraint Thomas but Maarten Tjallingii did: the Dutchman who finished third at Paris-Roubaix has the new best time in 6.33.

11:59 - Zabriskie back from the US

Garmin-Cervélo’s directeur sportif Johnny Weltz explained: “This prologue is a little bit short for David (Zabriskie). But this year, he’s very consistent in time trials. Now, he arrives directly from California and he might need a couple of days to get back to his rhythm. Wiggins and all the English specialists are here. Cadel Evans shouldn’t be too bad today either.”

11:58 - Thomas sets a good time

Geraint Thomas sets a good time: 6.34, at the average speed of 49.270km/h.

11:57 - Rodriguez at the finish

Joaquim Rodriguez has completed the course. He clocked 6.44. It looks pretty good!

11:56 - Wiggins in the hot seat

Bradley Wiggins is introduced in daily newspaper Le Dauphiné as the hot favourite for today’s 5.4km prologue in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne. The course includes the short côte de Bonrieux (800 metres at 5%), right after the start. The fastest man up there will be awarded the first jersey of king of the mountains. Local reporters also tip Wiggins’ team-mate Geraint Thomas (Sky) and Paris-Nice’s winner Tony Martin (HTC-Highroad) as his challengers, with newly crowned US time trial champion David Zabriskie (Garmin-Cervélo) as another man to watch.

11:43 - The course is drying up

It’s been raining this morning but the course is drying up now. It remains cloudy above the Maurienne valley.

11:04 - Welcome to the live coverage of the 63rd Dauphiné

Welcome to the online coverage of the 63rd edition of the Criterium du Dauphiné. For one week, we’ll let you know about every single fact of the race. It starts with a 5.4km prologue. The first starter is Santo Anza from Vacansoleil-DCM, at 11.41.

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