In today’s opening stage, a time trial instead of a short prologue, riders from the United States embarrassed pros from around the world. Lance didn’t win but he did catch his one minute man, Jan Ullrich who must have felt his heart drop when Lance came by. The U.S. took the first two places and had 5 guys in the top 11. The stage was won by 26 year old David Zabriske who posted an unreal average speed of 54.676 kilometers per hour (34.1725 mph)– JAY-sus!!!! which bested Greg LeMond’s 16 year-old average speed record during the greatest stage in Tour history in 1989. I hate to be negative here but I don’t see how David and Lance achieved this average speed despite their phenomenal talents. I’m trying to find out if there was any kind of tailwind ’cause that kinda speed is inhuman.

Alexander Vinokourov (T-Mobile) came in 3rd but was over a minute behind Lance. On an interesting note, the Tour’s medical staff decided to do a “random” drug test of a single rider before the stage despite the entire peloton taking the tests the day before during the required pre-race medical exam and guess who was randomly picked? Yup, Lance. He passed but it hardly seemed random. I guess the French are just looking for a way to stop us from stealing their sport. Ooops, too late!

STAGE 1 RESULTS :

1, ZABRISKIE David, CSC, USA,
2, ARMSTRONG Lance, DSC, USA, 00′ 02″
3, VINOKOUROV Alexandre, TMO, KAZ, 00′ 53″
4, HINCAPIE George, DSC, USA, 00′ 57″
5, BODROGI Laszlo, C.A, HUN, 00′ 59″
6, LANDIS Floyd, PHO, USA, 01′ 02″
7, CANCELLARA Fabian, FAS, SUI, 01′ 02″
8, VOIGT Jens, CSC, GER, 01′ 04″
9, KARPETS Vladimir, IBA, RUS, 01′ 05″
10, GONZALEZ GALDEANO Igor, LSW, ESP, 01′ 06″
11, JULICH Bobby, CSC, USA, 01′ 07″
12, ULLRICH Jan, TMO, GER, 01′ 08″
13, GUTIERREZ José Enrique, PHO, ESP, 01′ 12″
14, LEIPHEIMER Levi, GST, USA, 01′ 13″
15, RICH Michael, GST, GER, 01′ 13″
16, RUBIERA José Luis, DSC, ESP, 01′ 16″
17, POPOVYCH Yaroslav, DSC, UKR, 01′ 18″
18, MC GEE Bradley, FDJ, AUS, 01′ 24″
19, WAUTERS Marc, RAB, BEL, 01′ 25″
20, BASSO Ivan, CSC, ITA, 01′ 26″

OTHER STAGE NOTABLES:
25, BOTERO Santiago, PHO, COL, 01′ 30″
29, SASTRE Carlos, CSC, ESP, 01′ 32″
30, FRIGO Dario, FAS, ITA, 01′ 34″