Bradley Wiggins finished second to Time Trial maestro Fabian Cancellera as The Tour De France got underway in Liege, Belgium this afternoon.
With big crowds all the way round the 6.1kilometre course, the 198 riders went on their way with Dutch Tom Veels the first to go on a course described as relatively straight forward by BMC's Brit Steve Cummings who was the first Brit to go down the ramp.
Second Brit down was Garmin-Sharp's David Millar. The Scot had picked up a bug after looking after his wife who had it and went down with bouts of sickness on Wednesday when he arrived in Liege.
Millar said to Covsupport News Service: "My technical ability as a time trialer got me through today. "I was really bad, puking up and everything but it's over and I'm happy to be here and feeling really good."
When David Millar came home, he was the second fastest finisher so far behind Andriy Grivko with Steve Cummings third fastest.
Edvald Boasson Hagen then went fastest with a time of 7' 24.32" before Mark Cavendish came home and was swamped by the media.
Cavendish, who came in then 16th fastest had changed his tactics slightly but put in a good ride as did Ireland's Danny Martin riding for Garmin-Sharp. Martin said: "It was fantastic for me to be in the tour and great that my cousin (Nicholas Roche) is also in the race. "This is a massive learning curve for me."
American George Hincapie is riding his 17th and final Tour De France and he admitted that he was still having fun and was proud to be riding in his 17th tour.
Team Sky's Chris Froome was another Brit to put in a good ride. Froome came in sixth fastest so far and said that it was good to open up the legs after days of talk and he was delighted that it was out of the way.
Sylvain Chavanel had been leading with a time of 7.20. But then to massive cheers, although not as big as for local hero Phillippe Gilbert, Bradley Wiggins went down the ramp. Urged on by the many Brits in the crowd, he put in a brilliant ride to finish 0.42 seconds quicker than the Frenchman.
However, there were still some big guns to come and out came Fabian Cancellera. The Swiss super star, was in super form and he smashed Wiggins time by seven seconds to win the race which was confirmed when last man on the course, 2011 TDF winner Cadel Evans coould only come home in thirteenth.
Pictures copyright of Covsupport News Service. Credit CNS/KM