Prologue Dauphiné Libéré *****spoiler*****
 

Guess Mr Hincapie's fully recovered from PR :)

1 David Zabriskie (USA) Team CSC 4.35.84 (53.509 km/h)
2 George Hincapie (USA) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 0.01.88
3 Stuart O'grady (Aus) Team CSC 0.06.07
4 Sebastian Lang (Ger) Gerolsteiner 0.06.91
5 Joost Posthuma (Ned) Rabobank 0.07.35
6 Stijn Devolder (Bel) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 0.07.40
7 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears 0.07.61
8 Vladimir Gusev (Rus) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 0.07.70
9 Floyd Landis (USA) Phonak Hearing Systems 0.08.00
10 Andrey Kashechkin (Kaz) Würth 0.08.19

33.18mph wow....

Go Stu!

Fantastic effort after sitting out the spring. Bjarne has done it again.

hmmm...... Hincapie making a big effort for the time trial.... I wonder if he is trying to secure a place as the team leader for the tour.

I hope big Geroge gets his chance... even if he won't be in contention he deserves a chance after all the hard work he put in over the years.

I only see that on the downhills.....when I'm really, really working.

Unbelievable.

Good comebacks by Hincapie and particularly O'Grady after their spring campaigns were wrecked.

Nicely done by Zabriskie. Sad not to see him in the Giro, and now talk of him possibly not being in the Tour? Outrageous. The man will be Basso's most trusted lieutenant come the Alps.

Forza Zabriskie! (sounds preposterous)

Same for me but only with a tailwind!

Sorry, but THAT /\ sounds preposterous

+1 He'll definitely be help on the flat sections but David Z's not a climber, neither is Stuey. I was more surprised to DZ win this than Stuey having a good finish. It was so short it really doesn't give the TT specialist time to open it up. Good for Georgie though I'm glad he's recuperated.

Hincapie started the Dauphine virtually the same last year (though he won last year's prologue). He could be making a play for leader at the TdF, but the only person who knows what Discovery is going to do is Johan Bruyneel and he won't be making that decision for another 4 weeks.

As for the Dauphine, I'm surprised no one has picked up on the rider who finished 7th. Valverde could be strong in a shorter tour like this one.

I'm just glad to see OLN has finally arrived in Europe with some of their own people and audio/video equipment. What a difference in from the last few 'Cyclism Sunday' shows, which had faded, colorless, grainy video and gave the impression that the commentators could have been sitting in a studio in New York narrating a highlight reel. Even the official French race feed looks better--don't know if OLN is running it though some magic processors or they sprang for more bandwidth on the satellite, but what an improvement! Some of the interviews with the riders are interesting, too, especially when they are gracious enough to be interviewed while warming up. There wasn't any of that in the earlier Cyclism Sunday coverage--just the nasty faded race footage with voice-over. Though, of course, that IS better than nothing by a long shot.:o

I do think OLN sometimes goes overboard with their features stuck in during race coverage (especially in the prime time TdF programs), but I thought yesterday was a nice balance.

No Bobke, though. Kinda missed him.:p

Dagna

Agreed. During one race, there was no background noise, just Phil and Paul commentating. Weird. This was much better.

As for OLN....
All I can say is I'll take whatever I can get and I'm glad there is pro cycling on TV anywhere, regardless of quality. Just hearing Phil and Paul's voices calms me down and drawns me in. Once I hear my first, "In a round-about" from them I know all is right with the world.

As for George and DISCO....
My "sources" indicate he's the guy already. No doubt about it. They work for George this year sted Lance.

p.s.
Did anyone else notice during that interview with him yesterday how far his ears stick out?!

Hincapie won the Dauphine prologue last year. The fact that he would try to win it again isn't out of the ordinary.

And when you factor in the start is from a dead stop (though there is a ramp) and the course had a 180 degree turnaround... Its positively Awesome.

You'd figure that he'd have to be going in the high 30's for most of the course to average 33.1, given that you've got very little distance over which to spread the time loss from the start and the turn around.

I'd be lucky to get up to his cruising speed for 100 meters. (with a tailwind)

On some of the interviews, it looked like they were colorized. Chris Horner had black eyes and looked like he had been beaten up. Levi looked much the same. I thought maybe they have brightness issues when interviewing guys without hair, as I didn't notice this when they interviewed George - but then at the end, Zabriskie's nose looked like it was seriously sunburned - so maybe they are using some electronic tricks.

Aside from it looking like they were interviewing zombies, the coverage was quite enjoyable - particularly given that it was a time-trial format.

Good to see that Michael Barry is back on the bike as well after his hard crash.

That's exactly what I was thinking. For some reason I didn't realize O'Grady was no longer on Cofidis until I watched this.

Talk about a stacked team.

CSC is hitting on all cylinders right now. Basso wins the Giro, Van de Velde wins the Tour of Luxembourg and DZ wins the prologue. At 30 Christian Van de Velde is another guy who's carreer had taken a down turn and Riis has helped regain his form. Amazing!

Yes, his ears do stick out. But it doesn't slow him down as I tried to stay with him at 28 mph over a very hilly course for last years MS150.

That guy was Chris Horner, he's my favorite American rider, just totally laid back (at least he is now). Check out the race DVD Pro, it takes place during the US Pro RR championships (Philly Week). There is a part where Chris is sitting on a curb in his street clothes eating a hamburger while all his teammates are all geeked up and ready to race. He's just kick'n it totally relaxed, priceless!

I love Chris Horner. He truly rides like he's having the greatest time in the world. As it should be.