Dauphine Libere - Prologue

The Dauphine has been kicked off and started with a rush with Levi beating out Thor by just over a second! Slipstream's not racing this but some other favorites are so I'm going to try and catch as much of it as I can. I opted to get a ride in between storms this morning so I only saw a small bit live but I've since caught up with the great "on demand" at ctv. I so enjoy Brian and Anthony's coverage and love the solid video. It's not until what we get there is missing that you realize that it's pretty sweet! Good Luck to all the guys and I'll try to stay on top of daily updates for it. Work might interfere a wee bit though so it might be a nightly view instead of live. I'm also keeping a tab on Papa Georgio's site as well for news on Mel and baby number 2 for them!

This afternoon when I needed to get to a girlfriend's for her little one's birthday I was bummed about missing the TV coverage of it on VS. But, with some luck and hot, steamy temps here, most of us were inside and I asked about flipping to it instead of watching golf and all welcomed the idea. It was a lot of fun. Watching the prologue with non-cycling fans but those that had a genuine interest in what was going on and who was who. Good stuff and some enjoyable giggles with some of the questions they had! :-)

VN: A difficult Dauphine features a tough, explosive course
TeamCSC: Dauphine Preview
PEZ: Preview du Dauphine
VN: Astana downplays Leipheimer's chances at Dauphine
CycleTo: Odessa Gunn - Drowning Her Sorrows In Spain

Live Chatter: PdC

Prologue - June 8: Le Pontet - Avignon, 5.60km
Results
1 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Astana 6.10.05 (54.486 km/h)
2 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Crédit Agricole 0.01.42
6 Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence-Lotto 0.13.17
11 Craig Lewis (USA) High Road 0.14.38
14 Adam Hansen (Aus) High Road 0.15.92
20 Carlos Sastre (Spa) Team CSC 0.16.98
21 Lars Bak (Den) Team CSC 0.17.46
27 George Hincapie (USA) High Road 0.18.26
30 Chris Horner (USA) Astana 0.19.43
31 Michael Rogers (Aus) High Road 0.19.49
52 Karsten Kroon (Ned) Team CSC 0.24.56
75 Nicki Sørensen (Den) Team CSC 0.29.02
99 Michael Barry (Can) High Road 0.34.51
107 Chris Anker Sørensen (Den) Team CSC 0.35.72

TeamCSC: Good Start by Carlos Sastre
Astana_CMehl: Prologue: Leipheimer Shines in France!
CW: Leipheimer soars to Dauphine prologue win
DP: Prologue

GrahamWatsonPhotos: Prologue
Astana Photos: Prologue