2012 Tour de France: Fabian Cancellara Wins Individual Time Trial In Prologue

The always-impressive Fabian Cancellara made his presence felt immediately at the 2012 Tour de France on Saturday. The four-time world time trial champion proved once again what makes him so fearsome, as he blew away the other 197 riders in the Prologue stage in Liege, Belgium, besting early favorite Bradley Wiggins by a whopping seven seconds in the individual time trial. Cancellara captured the yellow jersey on opening day for the fifth time in his career and has already set the pace.

Sylvain Chavanel was the early leader for quite some time, before Wiggins just edged him out to take over the lead. When Cancellara finally set off, he began topping the checkpoint times and by the time he rounded the final corner, he had a wealth of time in hand to top Wiggins. It was a remarkable performance and a great way to kick off the biggest cycling event of the year.

Defending Tour de France champion Cadel Evans finished in 13th place.

Here are the stage results from Saturday's prologue:

Stage Results

Fabian Cancellara, RSH
Bradley Wiggins, Sky, at 0.07
Sylvain Chavanel, OPQS, s.t.
Tejay Van Garderen, BMC, at 0.10
Edvald Boasson Hagen, Sky, at 0.11
Brett Lancaster, Orica GreenEdge, s.t.
Patrick Gretsch, Argos Shimano, at 0.12
Denis Menchov, Katusha, at 0.13
Philippe Gilbert, BMC, s.t.
Andriy Grivko, Astana, at 0.15

General Classification

Fabian Cancellara, RSH
Bradley Wiggins, Sky, at 0.07
Sylvain Chavanel, OPQS, s.t.