Stage 1 Review
By Phil Liggett

The battle has begun and Fabian Cancellara did what he promised he would do on Wednesday, and win the opening 15km time trial in Monaco to become the first leader of the Tour de France. From fourth fastest at the top of the only climb on a technically difficult course, he flew home to win by 18 seconds.

The Swiss road champion is no stranger to winning the Tour opener, having done it in Liege in 2004, London in 2007 and will now head from Monaco to France in Yellow on Sunday. It will be a familiar sight.

In the race for the final overall, Lance Armstrong impressed with his early start time and led for a while, but this was overtaken by his American Astana team mate Levi Leipheimer, who in turn was passed by German team mate Andreas Kloden and finally 2007 champion Alberto Contador who gave an outstanding performance to establish himself as the protected rider in a very strong Astana team.

On a race day of only 20-plus minutes some riders will awake to large time gaps with four riders already over three minutes behind Cancellara. And although none of these nurtured hopes of final victory, it highlighted how difficult the course really was.

In the end, Armstrong finished 10th, a very creditable position for a man on the comeback trail, while Contador showed he is the man around whom they will likely build the team over the next three weeks.

There will be plenty of more twists to this tale as the Tour unfolds on the road to Paris, I am sure.