Evans (BMC) has blasted out of the start house. He did 17 rotations of the cranks before settling into the time trial position. He was second in the final time trial of last year's race, finishing only six seconds behind the future time trial world champion Tony Martin.

Evans has won two stages of the Tour in the past: the 13th stage of 2007 (a TT in Albi, when he was actually second on the day but was elevated after the positive test of the original winner Alexandre Vinokourov), and the fourth stage of last year's race.