Originally Posted by
40 Cent
Having no prologue changed things. Lance definitely relished a prologue win in his day. And without the prologue on the first day this year, riders placed a lot more importance on it -- it was almost like a one-day race out there; and Valverde's pretty good at those. But you can't compare Valverde to Merckx or Armstrong. But you're right in that Valverde lacks the confidence of those riders.
However, the difference is in the prologue yo can actually gain some time, albeit 10-15 seconds, depending on the length of the prologue.
Yesterday Valverde got same time, as many (or perhaps 1 second if they changed it on review), and paid a higher energy cost, than you spendin a hard effort in a 5 mile prologue.
I thought Valverde's comments were somewhat telling. He said he had 3 goals, and he accomplished 2 yesterday. Those aren't the words of someone who's confident of winning GC. It was almost like he was hedging his bets, by at least winnig a stage, and wearing yellow