Cancellara Wins the Prologue while Evans Loses Time to Wiggins
The battle of the big aerobic engines at the Tour de France Prologue played out pretty much as expected. Fabian Cancellera, who rose to prominence in the 2004 Prologue in Liege where he beat Lance Armstrong, repeated in 2012 with a dominating time of 07:13 over the 6.4km course. With huge aerobic capacity, functional threshold power in excess of 450 watts, and great bicycle aerodynamics, Cancellara averaged 53.21kph or 33.03mph. Such an amazing cycling performance likely required average power in excess of 540 watts.
Peter Sagan of the Liquigas squad lead at the first time check, but a mishap at the second roundabout caused him to slow and unclip, costing him valuable seconds and a top 10 finish. Likewise, Tony Martin from Omega Pharma-Quickstep experienced a mechanical, was forced to change bikes and lost 20 seconds.
Among the Tour de France 2012 Favorites, Bradley Wiggins of Team Sky showed that he is ready to romp at this year's Tour de France. Wiggins finished second to Cancellara with a time of 7:20. Dennis Menchov from Team Katusha also demonstrated that he is a force to be reckoned with an 8th place finish, just 6 seconds behind Wiggins. Poor bicycle aerodynamics cost Cadel Evans of Team BMC 10 seconds over his rival Wiggins.
Wiggins and Evans likely have a very similar power profile, but look at the aerodynamic position of each rider. Wiggins' heead is tucked and his hands are in a position such that it is not scooping air, thus reducing frontal surface area drag. Contrast his position with Cadel Evans. His oversized head is sticking up above his shoulders and his hand position creates even more aerodynamic drag. It's hard to imagine that a professional cyclist like Evans does not spend hours in the wind tunnel analyzing his position. But there it is - an inferior aerodynamic position cost Evans valuable seconds against Wiggins. That 10 second difference is likely to become minutes over the longer time trials to come.
Tour de France Prologue Results (Top 10 and Tour Favorites)
| 1 | Fabian Cancellara (Swi) RadioShack-Nissan | 0:07:13 |
| 2 | Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky Procycling | 0:00:07 |
| 3 | Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Omega Pharma-QuickStep | |
| 4 | Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team | 0:00:10 |
| 5 | Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Procycling | 0:00:11 |
| 6 | Brett Lancaster (Aus) Orica GreenEdge Cycling Team | |
| 7 | Patrick Gretsch (Ger) Argos - Shimano | 0:00:12 |
| 8 | Denis Menchov (Rus) Katusha Team | 0:00:13 |
| 9 | Philippe Gilbert (Bel) BMC Racing Team | |
| 10 | Andriy Grivko (Ukr) Astana Pro Team | 0:00:15 |
| 13 | Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team | 0:00:17 |
| 14 | Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale | 0:00:18 |
| 15 | Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin - Sharp | |
| 19 | Andreas Klöden (Ger) RadioShack-Nissan | 0:00:19 |
| 32 | Janez Brajkovic (Slo) Astana Pro Team | 0:00:22 |
| 45 | Tony Martin (Ger) Omega Pharma-QuickStep | 0:00:23 |
| 59 | Rui Alberto Faria Da Costa (Por) Movistar Team | 0:00:25 |
| 65 | Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team | 0:00:26 |
| 74 | Luis Leon Sanchez Gil (Spa) Rabobank Cycling Team | 0:00:27 |
| 77 | Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Lotto Belisol Team | 0:00:28 |
| 80 | Levi Leipheimer (USA) Omega Pharma-QuickStep | |
| 90 | Ivan Basso (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale | 0:00:29 |
| 100 | Thomas Danielson (USA) Garmin - Sharp | 0:00:31 |
| 109 | Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Team Europcar | 0:00:34 |
| 113 | Christopher Horner (USA) RadioShack-Nissan | |
| 116 | Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Movistar Team | 0:00:35 |
| 136 | Frank Schleck (Lux) RadioShack-Nissan | 0:00:38 |
| 145 | Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi | 0:00:40 |
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