Unfortunate start for Landis

Phonak team leader Floyd Landis started out this year's Tour de France with a small misfortune: Just minutes before his scheduled start at the prologue, a cut in his tyre was found, which meant that the team mechanics had to quickly change Landis' wheel. As a result of this, the American Tour de France overall contender arrived six seconds late on the start ramp.

"If I had been aware that it was that close to the start, I'd have taken the risk of not changing the tyre," Landis said after the race. Moreover, because of this confusion, he hadn't put on the right gear to start. "I was completely out of focus because of all of that."

In the end, the winner of 2006 Paris-Nice got into the finish placed ninth, nine seconds down of winner Thor Hushovd, which is not a bad result at all considering the circumstances.