Norwegian Thor Hushovd was the surprise winner of time-trial prologue on Saturday when the Tour de France, shorn of its pre-race favourites, began under a doping cloud.
The Credit Agricole rider set a time of eight minutes 17 seconds on the 7.1-km flat course along the wide avenues of the host city of the European parliament.
George Hincapie, who became the new leader of the Discovery Channel team after seven-times winner Lance Armstrong retired last year, was less than a second behind.
Another American, David Zabriskie (CSS), had to content himself with third place, four seconds adrift of Hushovd.
The American rider, who defeated Lance Armstrong by two seconds in last year's Tour prologue and won the Dauphine Libere's opening short time trial last June, was regarded as the hot favourite.
Sebastian Lang of Germany was fourth and Spain's Alejandro Valverde fifth.
Hushovd is one of the best sprinters in the peloton but is not regarded as a time-trial specialist.
He admitted he was surprised by his performance.
'I never thought I could win the prologue,' he said. 'I knew I had done a lot of progress against the clock but I never thought it would be enough.'
Hushovd will wear the race leader's yellow jersey during Sunday's 184.5km first road stage around Strasbourg but his leadership should be short-lived.
His win confirmed the 2006 Tour could be the most open race for years after Armstrong's retirement and the withdrawal of the two main pretenders to succeed the American, Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso.
The German, winner of the Tour in 1997, and the Italian, champion at the last Giro d'Italia, were swept away by a doping tidal wave on the eve of the start of the race. The top five from the 2005 race have either retired or been withdrawn.
Seven other riders and a whole team, Astana-Wuerth, were implicated in a doping investigation in Spain and had to pull out. The peloton was reduced from 21 to 20 teams and from 189 to 176 riders.
