Hushovd Back In Yellow Again...

Prologue Summary _ _ Tour de France – 93rd edition _ Prologue: Strasbourg Time Trial (7.1km) _ 176 Starters _ Weather: Hot & Sunny _ _ Following the retirement of the Astana-Wurth team from the 2006 Tour de France because of circumstances bought about by the so-called ‘Operacion Puerto’ in Spain there were 176 riders from 20 squads present for the start of the 93rd Tour de France. This is the smallest field since 1984 (when there were 170 riders at the start in Montreuil). _ The first rider to start the 93rd Tour was Cedric Coutouly from the only wildcard team in the race. He began the time trial at 1.15pm. The Frenchman was the virtual leader for less than a minute: his time was beaten by the second rider (Sacchi, Milram). Times dropped steadily with Grabsch (PHO) setting the early standard of 8’31”. The German time trial champion, Lang (GST) beat that time by 10”. O’Grady (CSC) slotted into second place (0.13 of a second slower) and these two led the provisional standings for most of the day. It wasn’t until the designated team leaders and true time trial specialists began that the top five began to change. _ Joost Posthuma (RAB) was the star of the intermediate time check. He surprised himself after hurting his back in the Dutch championships only one week ago but started today’s time trial at full speed, clocking the fastest time split for most of the day at the 3.6km mark. _ It wasn’t until Thor Hushovd blasted past the check at Quai des Belge that Posthuma’s time would be eclipsed. _ _ Hushovd Claims His Second ‘Maillot Jaune’ _ The winner of last year’s points classification covered the 7.1km course at an average speed of 51.428km/h. His time was eight minute and 17 seconds exactly. In second place was the last rider to start the stage, George Hincapie (DSC) who missed out on giving his team the perfect start and yet another yellow jersey when he finished only 0.73 of a second slower than the Norwegian Credit Agricole rider. _ The winner of last year’s opening day, Dave Zabriskie proved that he was no one-day Tour phenomenon. He finished third, four seconds behind Hushovd. _ This will be the second time in his career that Hushovd will wear the ‘maillot jaune’ (after one day in yellow during the 2004 Tour, the last in which he won a stage). He believes that his team is strong enough to be able to help him defend the lead of general classification for a few days but his intention is to also try and win a stage in a bunch sprint.