Hincapie disappointed

American George Hincapie, who missed out on the Tour de France prologue victory by a hair, was disappointed he did not take the Yellow Jersey. "I wanted to win, I have been training a lot for this, so I am disappointed," the Discovery rider told Reuters news agency.

The New Yorker, who has lived in the shadow of seven-times Tour winner Lance Armstrong, also admitted he was still not comfortable with leader status in his team. "I am going to live this Tour day by day because this leader status is new to me," the 33 year-old added.

Hincapie thinks compatriots Floyd Landis (Phonak) and Levi Leipheimer (Gerolsteiner), now Tour favourites in the absence of Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso, are more used to their roles.

"I have prepared for this but I still don't know how far I can go," he said. Still, Discovery team director Johan Bruyneel has several options for the general classification: there are also Yaroslav Popovych and José Azevedo, possibly waiting for their chances to make the limelight.