Cancellara won the prologue on the demanding course in a time of 3:38. The rider mostly had to race on
cobblestone sections and had to climb a steep hill on the final 300 metres (max. gradient 25%).
"My arms hurt more than my legs right now, cause it was such a short and steep prologue, you had to push with
your whole body in order to go fast. It's 20 minutes since I crossed the line and my arms are still burning," said Cancellara
just before receiving his yellow leader's jersey on the podium.
"Actually I'm quite surprised, cause I haven't been
good enough during training these past couple of days. But once you're at the start and ready to go, you just go 'full gas'
and see what you end up with," said Cancellara.
Jimmy Engoulvent (Credit Agricole) came in second, 3 seconds behind Cancellara. Last year the French rider
won the prologue of the event. Austrian rider Harald Starzengruber (Elk Haus) surprised with a third place. Starzengruber
needed, 3:50 for the 2.4 kilometres long course, 12 seconds behind Cancellara.
Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas), Kevin Ista (Agritubel) and his French teammate Nicolas Vogondy were placed 4 until
6 and were also 12 seconds behind Cancellara. On the positions 7,8 & 9 were the Astana trio René Haselbacher,
Assan Bazayew and Benoit Joachim.
Cancellaras teammates Fränk (3:55) and his brother Andy Schleck (3:58) did not manage to get into
the top ten of todays prologue of the stage race in their home country.
