TDF Prologue: Beginner's Luck
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Posted Saturday, July 03, 2004 at 01:30 PM [GMT-6]

Imagine that you're a young professional bike racer. You're 23 years old, and you've been making money racing bicycles only three years. You've grown up watching -- from a distance -- legends and legends-to-be like Lance, Jan, Tyler.

Then, in 2004, you find yourself in the incredible position of being a member of a team entered in the greatest bicycling event in history: the Tour de France! You can scarcely sleep in the days leading up to today, the first day of the Tour. The Prologue is the shortest leg of the Tour, just over 6 kilometer...or about 7 minutes of riding. Riders start one minute apart, for three hours. You've ridden pretty well thus far during the season, and you've got a starting position in the upper half of the Tour pack. Still, 45 riders will start after you do...45 riders who are deemed to be stronger, faster, better than you. But this is the Tour, and you're in it for the first time, and your heartbeat is about 200 bpm as you wait at the top of the ramp for your start.

It arrives and you're lost in the ride. The thousands of spectators lining the route are barely perceived in your peripheral vision, and they don't enter at all into your mental state. There's nothing but you, the bike and the road for the next 6 minutes, 51 seconds, which you are amazed to see puts you in first place...for now. You settle in to watch the remaining riders, sure that one of them will knock you out of the top spot, but hoping against hope for a miracle. One by one, the riders cross the finish line, and each finisher is slower than you, and your hope begins to grow.

Finally, it's time for the reigning Tour champion and time trialer extraordinaire, Lance himself. You know that you've got a lock on second place, and that's incredible. Lance is only 2 seconds behind you at the split, and you also know that the best time trialers usually have negative splits...the second half is faster than the first. Lance is riding strongly, like the 5-time champion he is, and as he comes into view of the finish line, you sense that today is just not your day.

Incredibly, though, he falls short, officially just one second slower, and you begin to cry as it sinks in. You're Fabian Cancellara, from Switzerland, and you've just won the first stage of the Tour de France in your very first try. In fact, you'll wear the yellow jersey tomorrow as the overall tour leader...in your very first try. Regardless of what comes later, your place in cycling history is now secure.

Update: The Tour de France blog reports that Cancellara is the second man to win the opening stage in his first appearance. Brit Chris Boardman did it ten years ago.

Get all the official Tour de France details here. The Tour de France blog is also a great place for a recap of the major stories of the day.