21 Days to Glory

ROUTE/ The 2012 Tour riders burst from the start-house ramp at 2pm, in two-minute intervals, to sprint from one side of the Parc d’Avroy in Liège and finish on the opposite side over 6.4km through the city centre.

THE CHALLENGE/ A short, tough, quick-fire test would provide the start order for Stage 1. The route required plenty of acceleration and braking, favouring racers with a wily reading of lines through corners and good bike-handling skills to maintain speed. The short distance – 6.4km out of the Tour’s 3,500km – meant it was imperative for the title contenders to claim as big a time advantage as possible to prevent a nerve-fraying first road-stage phase.

HOW IT UNFOLDED/ Andriy Grivko, the four-time Ukrainian time-trial champion, was fourth down the ramp and established the early standard, posting a time of 7 minutes 28 seconds. Midway through the procession of 198 racers, Sylvain Chavanel of France laid down a stunning time of 7 minutes 20 seconds, which looked unbeatable until Bradley Wiggins crossed the line. Wiggins was six seconds down at the intermediate split, but responded by powering through the second half to shave less than half a second from Chavanel’s time.

However, Fabian Cancellara – the Swiss time-trial specialist described as ‘a motorbike in prologues’ – raced home in 7 minutes 13 seconds to take his fifth opening-day win, equalling Bernard Hinault’s record of starting the first stage in the yellow jersey for a fifth time. Cancellara beat Wiggins by seven seconds. Chavanel was third.

How did Wiggins’s main GC rivals fare? Cadel Evans, the defending champion, finished 10 seconds off in 13th place. Ryder Hesjedal, the 2012 Giro d’Italia winner, and Vincenzo Nibali failed to threaten. World time-trial champion Tony Martin suffered a puncture and finished 23 seconds adrift. Peter Sagan, the in-form Slovakian chasing the green points jersey, lost seconds when he came close to crashing on a roundabout.

‘I’m really happy,’ said Wiggins. ‘I did say to the team last night that there was one man who could beat me and that was Fabian. He is king of these prologues, the best in the world without a doubt.’

Going forward, Team Sky was right in the mix. Without the stress of defending the yellow jersey, the team could concentrate on protecting Wiggins in the torrid early days and also work for Mark Cavendish in the forthcoming stages with sprint opportunities.

‘We are in a great position. When Bradley opened up it was plain to see his condition is good. It is just a question of staying out of trouble, starting tomorrow,’ said Sean Yates.

Winner: Fabian Cancellara (SWI); Radioshack Nissan Trek; 7’13”; 13.470 (53.2km/h)

‘It’s the perfect start. I was really calm, really relaxed. I felt fantastic out there. I didn’t take any major risks. I concentrated and it was everything we have been training for.’

Bradley Wiggins