Lance Armstrong, who is bidding to win his sixth Tour de France, made a strong start in the opening day prologue, but he had to settle for second place behind Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara
Fassa Bortolo rider Cancellara, took the stage in six minutes, 50.94 seconds in Liege in Begium.
Armstrong, riding for US Postal, was two seconds outside Cancellara's time while Germany's Jan Ullrich, many people's tip to end Armstrong's run this year, finished 15th in 7:07.40.
Jose Gutierrez of Spain was third, Australian Bradley McGee fourth and Norway's Thor Hushovd fifth.
Sligoman Mark Scanlon, riding in gis first Tour, went off seventh of the field and clocked 7:18.910, with a 3:32 halfway split. After 25 riders, that was good enough for second overall but the 1998 world junior champion soon slipped down the rankings.
For a rider ranked 127th in the world, it's a solid start for Scanlon and bodes well for tomorrow's first road stage - the 202.5km slog from Liege to Charleroi. Only two of Scanlon's Ag2r Prevoyance team currently rank higher in classification with Ukrainian Yuri Krivtsov 54th and French man Laurent Brochard 57th.
Filed by James McMahon
