Tour de France Day 1 Results

[HighSchool Fan]

Prologue

From Fromentine to Noirmoutier
11.8 miles

1. David Zabriskie, United States, CSC, 20 minutes, 51 seconds.

2. Lance Armstrong, United States, Discovery Channel, 2 seconds behind.

3. Alexander Vinokourov, Kazakhstan, T-Mobile, 53 seconds behind.

4. George Hincapie, United States, Discovery Channel, 57 seconds behind.

5. Laszlo Bodrogi, Hungary, Credit Agricole, 59 seconds behind.

6. Floyd Landis, United States, Phonak, 1 minute, 2 seconds behind.

7. Fabian Cancellara, Switzerland, Fassa Bortolo, 1 minute, 2 seconds behind.

8. Jens Voigt, Germany, CSC, 1 minute, 4 seconds behind.

9. Vladimir Karpets, Russia, Illes Balears, 1 minute, 5 seconds behind.

10. Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano, Spain, Liberty Seguros, 1 minute, 6 seconds behind.

11. Bobby Julich, United States, CSC, 1 minute, 7 seconds behind.

12. Jan Ullrich, Germany, T-Mobile, 1 minute, 8 seconds behind.

13. Jose Enrique Gutierrez, Spain, Phonak, 1 minute, 12 seconds behind.

14. Levi Leipheimer, United States, Gerolsteiner, 1 minute, 13 seconds behind.

15. Michael Rich, Germany, Gerolsteiner, 1 minute, 13 seconds behind.

16. Jose Luis Rubiera, Spain, Discovery Channel, 1 minute, 16 seconds behind.

17. Yaroslav Popovych, Ukraine, Discovery Channel, 1 minute, 18 seconds behind.

18. Bradley McGee, Australia, Francaise des Jeux, 1 minute, 24 seconds behind.

19. Marc Wauters, Belgium, Rabobank, 1 minute, 25 seconds behind.

20. Ivan Basso, Italy, CSC, 1 minute, 26 seconds behind.

21. Sebastian Lang, Germany, Gerolsteiner, 1 minute, 27 seconds behind.

22. Benjamin Noval Gonzalez, Spain, Discovery Channel, 1 minute, 28 seconds behind.

23. Robert Hunter, South Africa, Phonak, 1 minute, 30 seconds behind.

24. Walter Beneteau, France, Bouygues Telecom, 1 minute, 30 seconds behind.

25. Santiago Botero, Columbia, Phonak, 1 minute, 30 seconds behind.

[turbostud]

Armstrong is untouchable. He already has almost a minute on one of his main rivals Vinokourov. 68 seconds on Jan Ullrich and 86 seconds on Basso. That is alot of time to make up on Armstrong unless he falters or crashes.

[HighSchool Fan]

is it possible to have won the tour on the first day??

[turbostud]

I dont see anyone beating Armstong unless he becomes sick or has a crash. The time gaps that he has on his rivals is going to take alot to overcome. But this is only the first day and anything can happen in this race. The first mountain stage on Sunday July 10 will separate the strong from the weak and will give us a clue to if anyone has a chance at de-throning LA.

[Gobbla2001]

Forget his rivals, just pay attention to what he has done in the past... Since I have been paying attention to the Tour, Lance has always started off slow and has come back during the last two stages or whatever to take the win... But two seconds behind ALREADY? Shut the show down, the guy's got it in the bag (I hope)...

[bullfrog_alumni_02]

keep in mind the the last third or the last half of this race is mountians, which happen to be what Armstrong does the best.

[lostaussie]

swan song may be a beating to rest of field.

[PhiI C]

Did you all hear that after all the participates had been drug tested two days before the event started but yesterday they decided to make one more randon selection out of the 189 contestants and guess who it was? Yep and once again the results were negative.

[turbostud]

Originally posted by PhiI C
Did you all hear that after all the participates had been drug tested two days before the event started but yesterday they decided to make one more randon selection out of the 189 contestants and guess who it was? Yep and once again the results were negative.

French government random dope control tests one rider: Lance Armstrong
By Tim Maloney, European Editor in Nantes

As defending Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong was relaxing Friday afternoon in his hotel room in Nantes before the 2005 Tour team presentation in Challans later on Friday evening, he was summoned to a surprise out of competition anti-doping test conducted by the French Ministry of Youth and Sport at 3:30. Although the test was deemed "random", Armstrong appeared to be the only Tour de France rider tested by the French government Friday. The test likely came as surprise to Armstrong, as he and all the other riders at the Tour had their blood tests performed yesterday. Armstrong is considered as perhaps the most tested athlete in any sport and sources later confirmed to Cyclingnews that today's test was the American's sixth out of competition test so far in 2005.

Cyclingnews was at the Discovery Channel team hotel Friday afternoon for tech coverage of Armstrong's time trial bike when suddenly, Armstrong appeared up amidst the team tech area. We thought he might be there to check out his TT bike set up, but in reality, he was performing a surprise out of competition anti-doping test conducted by the French Ministry of Sport and Youth. The French government sent two functionaries, one a medical doctor and they were accompanied by two UCI representatives. A stone faced Armstrong went into the team bus with the four medical control officials and emerged almost an hour later after blood and urine samples were taken on the spot.

Two of Armstrong's blood samples were checked in the team bus, while two others were retained by the French officials, perhaps to be sent for further testing by Dr. Jacques de Ceaurriz, chief of the French national anti-doping lab in Châtenay-Malabry. Once the surprise tests were over, Armstrong showed no emotion and greeted some friends who had come to see him, joking and taking some pictures before returning to his team hotel. No word whether the French Ministry of Sport and Youth plans a series of surprise out of competition anti-doping initiatives during the Tour that target other race favourites, but today Armstrong was the random choice.

[gobbler grad]

Lance still in 2nd after 2nd stage...

other American, Zabriskie holds on to yellow jersey...

[Old Tiger]

I don't know about yall but I can't wait till the mountain stages where Lance really thrives

[PhiI C]

Originally posted by Tiger WR
I don't know about yall but I can't wait till the mountain stages where Lance really thrives

You are right there Tiger. The first part of the tour is mainly for the sprinters and not the ones who will compete for the overall win. In fact today Lance and his team played it safe because of the risks because these are the places where the danger of crashes exist. Still Lance is in good shape today in second place.