TODAY’S STAGE 1Today’s stage begins in London...

TODAY’S STAGE 1

Today’s stage begins in London and takes the riders 203 kilometers, or 126.1 miles, to the city of Canterbury. The route is relatively flat and thus suited for the sprinters, but three small categorized climbs could shake things up:

[please see microfilm for map]

Saturday’s stage: The prologue took the 189 riders along a 4.9-mile time-trial course past such landmarks as the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace in London.

* Winner: Fabian Cancellara, the world time-trial champion, of Team CSC. Andreas Kloeden (Astana) of Germany was 13 seconds behind. George Hincapie (Discovery) of the U.S. was next, 23 seconds off the pace. Britain’s Bradley Wiggins (Cofidis), who was looking to bring the home fans a victory, was fourth.

* Yellow jersey: Cancellara.

* Quote of the day: “There are a lot of problems in cycling, but I want to look to the future. And if you keep looking back at the past, of course, it’s hard.”

-- Fabian Cancellara, prologue winner.

-- Associated Press

PROLOGUE RESULTS

*--* 1. F. Cancellara, Switzerland 8:50 2. Andreas Kloeden, Germany :13 behind 3. George Hincapie, U.S. :23 4. Bradley Wiggins, Britain same time 5. Vladimir Gusev, Russia :25 behind 6. Vladimir Karpets, Russia :26 behind 7. A. Vinokourov, Kazakhstan :30 behind 8. T. Dekker, Netherlands :31 behind 9. Manuel Quinziato, Italy :32 behind 10. Benoit Vaugrenard, France same time

*--*