Cancellara wins Tour prologue

Swiss Fabian Cancellara won the 7.9-km Tour de France prologue through the streets of London yesterday.

The Team CSC rider claimed his second victory in the prologue by clocking eight minutes 50 seconds over the flat course which began at Trafalgar Square and ended in The Mall.

"I had more pressure than when I won the Tour prologue in Liege in 2004 ahead of Lance Armstrong," Cancellara told reporters.

"This was a great day for cycling. It's just a shame I'm still waiting for my luggage which I lost at Heathrow Airport. But I have the (overall leader's) yellow jersey, it's what matters today."

The 26-year-old time trial world champion beat Andreas Kloeden of the Astana team by 13 seconds.

The German underlined his ambitions by defeating his team leader Alexander Vinokourov, who finished seventh, by 17 seconds.

American George Hincapie of Discovery Channel was third, 23 seconds off the pace.

Bradley Wiggins, the prologue favourite, finished fourth in the same time while fellow Briton David Millar was down in 13th place.

Today's first stage will take the peloton from London to Kent.