Norwegian Hushovd Wins Tour Prologue

To watch this Tour de France only for the cycling, a person may need earplugs and blinders. Hear no evil, see no evil.

With those in place, one might have appreciated the red-faced effort put forth by Norwegian Thor Hushovd, a stolid racer for French team Credit Agricole, who won the prologue of the 2006 race Saturday in stifling heat.

Or felt the visceral pain of American George Hincapie, who fell less than a second off Hushovd’s winning time of 8 minutes 17 seconds in the 4.4-mile prologue through the twisty streets of this Alsatian capital. At the end, Hincapie threw his helmet to the hot concrete, distraught at being denied the chance to wear the yellow jersey today at the start of Stage 1. The result still mattered. Another American, Dave Zabriskie of CSC, finished third.

But this couldn’t be about just a bike race.

Not after the dramatics of Friday, when last year’s second- through fifth-place finishers were sent home by their teams or watched their teams be devastated by allegations of illegal use of performance-enhancing substances.

Along with hearing Hushovd say, “I am so happy,” the words of 2005 runner-up Ivan Basso echoed.

Basso was home in Italy and told the sports newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport, “I’ve done nothing, but I’ve left like a thief. Two years ago I rode knowing that my mother was dying of cancer. This is nothing, then, compared to that. I am certain I will come out of this with my head held high.”

Hincapie, who is one of the leaders of Discovery Channel, seven-time winner Lance Armstrong’s former team, expressed dismay when he saw he was .73 slower than Hushovd after this single-file race against the clock, the first of 21 stages.

Still the words of 1997 champ and five-time runner-up Jan Ullrich seemed to reverberate from nearby Germany, where he lives.

“I am innocent,” he said on German television and on his website. “I will clear my name.”

Missing from Saturday’s start to the 93rd Tour were Basso; Ullrich, third last year; Francesco Mancebo, fourth; and Alexandre Vinokourov, fifth. Basso, Ullrich and Mancebo were reportedly identified by Spanish police in a wide-ranging investigation after a May raid in Madrid of a laboratory where evidence of blood doping was found. Five of Vinokourov’s teammates were also implicated, so his Astana-Wurth team could not start with the minimum required six riders.

“All this is sad for cycling,” Hushovd said, “but it is good they are cleaning this all up. I do hope the fans will continue to support us as they always have.”

Because there is no attendance taken at this event, where no tickets are sold and fans line the roads five- and six-deep to watch riders sweep past, it is impossible to say whether crowds were smaller.

It seemed so though.

“I think some of the people will stay home now,” said Henri Callans, who said he came only because the race started in his hometown. “Until France loses in the World Cup, the Tour will suffer. But there is also a cloud over everything. How can we trust the results?”

Pat McQuaid, head of the international cycling federation, spoke before Saturday’s prologue. “At the moment,” he said, “we have only allegations. If these allegations are true, though, it means we lose these guys from the sport. That is terrible, but we must clean up our sport.”

McQuaid also told VeloNews, a cycling magazine and online publication, that American Tyler Hamilton, the 2004 Olympic gold medalist who has been under a drug suspension for more than a year and whose name has appeared in the Spanish investigation, will face a lifetime ban if the new allegations are proved.

Fans still crowded the team buses before the start, begging for autographs. They still waited eagerly for the caravan of publicity vehicles to drive by so they could catch pieces of chocolate and bottles of water. It was a hot, sunny day, a good time to have a picnic.

There was a gasp when a race favorite who is still eligible, American Floyd Landis, started several seconds late. Landis, who won the inaugural Tour of California last winter, had a gash in his tire. Mechanics from his Swiss team Phonak made a quick change, Landis finished in ninth place and is nine seconds out of the lead.

A man named Erik, a German from nearby Karlsruhe who said his last name wasn’t important, was philosophical about what is happening to his second-favorite sporting event (soccer comes first).

“I was coming to support Ullrich,” he said. “He’s gone. Innocent or guilty? I don’t really care. So I’ll drink some beer and go home tonight and watch the World Cup. That’s the sport. This is a party.”