| 07/02/2005 | | Possibly the most anticipated start to a Tour in the past decade, the Grand Depart in Fromentine, on the west coast of the country, is a time trial and not the traditional shorter prologue. All eyes will be on Lance Armstrong to see if the dominance he has shown in recent Tour time trials will continue and kickstart his campaign for a seventh Tour victory. He'll be challenged on the flat, 19 kilometre parcours by in-orm riders such as Michael Rogers, who is looking good after a successful Tour de Suisse, and Santiago Botero, whose class shined through at the Tour of Romandy. Fabian Cancellara, last year's surprise prologue winner, may have another surprise in store, and look to Brad McGee to throw up a threat; he's a perennial challenger for prologue honours - the extra distance shouldn't bother him too much, but his GC ambitions may control his push for opening day honours a little. Stage Map Stage Profile
Images ©:AFP Start order 15:40 Ludovic Turpin (Ag2r-Prevoyance) 15:41 Iker Flores (Euskaltel-Euskadi) 15:42 Alessandro Bertolini (Domina Vacanze) 15:43 Bernhard Eisel (Française Des Jeux) 15:44 Robert Förster (Gerolsteiner) 15:45 Gorazd Stangelj (Lampre-Caffita) 15:46 Walter Bénéteau (Bouygues Telecom) 15:47 Wilfried Cretskens (Quick.Step) 15:48 Stéphane Augé (Cofidis, Le Credit Par Telephone) 15:49 Michael Albasini (Liquigas-Bianchi) 15:50 Laszlo Bodrogi (Credit Agricole) 15:51 Allan Davis (Liberty Seguros-Würth) 15:52 Rubens Bertogliati (Saunier Duval-Prodir) 15:53 Mauro Facci (Fassa Bortolo) 15:54 Steve Zampieri (Phonak Hearing Systems) 15:55 Marc Wauters (Rabobank) 15:56 Mario Aerts (Davitamon-Lotto) 15:57 Xabier Zandio (Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne) 15:58 David Zabriskie (Team CSC) 15:59 Giuseppe Guerini (T-Mobile Team) 16:00 Pavel Padrnos (Discovery Channel) 16:01 Yuriy Krivtsov (Ag2r-Prevoyance) 16:02 Inaki Isasi (Euskaltel-Euskadi) 16:03 Alessandro Co http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2005/tour05/?id=stages/tour051
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