It was a case of history repeating for Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Nissan), as he won the Tour de France 6.4km prologue in Liège just as he had eight years ago.

While Cancellara's performance was flawless; the same could not be said for rivals Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) or Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) who both struck their own brand of trouble on the technical course. In the battle for general classification glory, Bradley Wiggins (Sky) struck the first blow against defending champion Cadel Evans (BMC) with 10 seconds separating the pair.