In an eye-opening return-to-form Team RadioShack-Nissan's former time trial world champion rode to victory in the opening prologue of the 2012 Tour de France taking place in Liege, Belgium - a city well-known to cycling fans.

Rolling out of the start house second-to-last, Cancellara posted the best time by one-second at the midway check point and continued to ramp up his performance to claim the stage win by seven-seconds.

By winning today's stage, Cancellara succeeded at mirroring his win from 2004, also in Liège, Belgium, where he made his debut in the Tour de France with a prologue win and yellow jersey only 23 years old.

Commenting on today's Tour de France prologue victory Cancellara told Roadcycling.com "I have memories today of winning 8 years ago and that was very special. When you are 23 and win, then 8 years later do it again, it's a very special thing for me and my family. I dedicate this victory to my wife who has supported me over the past difficult months."

Defending Tour de France champion Cadel Evans of Team BMC Racing was the last rider to start today's prologue and finished it in 13th position, delivering a "not good, but not bad performance," 17 seconds behind stage winner Cancellara and 6 seconds behind fellow GC (general classification) favorite Bradley Wiggins.

"You never want to lose time to any GC rider and I lost time to one, but I was sort of expecting that," Evans explained, referring to prologue runner-up Wiggins. "But it is six kilometers out of 3,500 or so, so in that regard it's a small comparison. I'm happy to get things started and I'm feeling good."

Team Sky Procycling's Wiggins - who has won the Paris-Nice, the Tour de Romandie and the Criterium du Dauphine in a hugely impressive build-up to road cycling's biggest event - finished 2nd, just 7 seconds short of stage winner Cancellara's time. Wiggins appeared very determined to take the overall Tour de France victory and proved that he is currently the strongest of the GC contenders, though some analysts expect his form to logically drop in the coming weeks after a spring where he has delivered one strong performance after the other.

COmmenting on his impressive start in this year's Tour, Wiggins told Roadcycling.com and our mobile sister site Roadcycling.mobi "I'm really happy, the legs felt good and I stayed calm and relaxed. It's a good start and the main thing was to stay upright, safe and trouble-free - it's nice to get this first day out of the way. Fair play to Fabian (Cancellara), he's the best in the world at what he does and I think he proved that again today."

Current time trial world champion Tony Martin (Germany) suffered a mechanical error and a flat in today's prologue and thus delivered a disappointing result in his favorite discipline, though he looked set to deliver a strong show-of-force until the mechanical error.

Commenting on the mishaps, Martin told Roadcycling.com "I could feel that I was slipping away on the last roundabout and thought 'OK, maybe it's just a little bit slippery,' but then I realized I had a (rear tire) flat and had to change the bike. I think it was a quick change, but it kills the morale and the rhythm. I'm really disappointed."

"I still have a good time, and I think would have a made a really good time without the flat tire. I wanted to fight for the Yellow. I'm disappointed, but I thought to myself 'just keep on fighting, the long time trials are coming.' I can tell I have very good condition. Now my goal is to keep the morale, stay in front, show the strength of me and the whole team and try again in the long time trial," Martin explained.

Liquigas-Cannondale's GC hopeful Vincenzo Nibali finished in 14th position, 18 seconds behind Cancellara. Team Omega Pharma-QuickStep's American GC outsider Levi Leipheimer finished 80th, 28 seconds back and therefore still appears to be affected by the crash he was involved in earlier this season.

By winning today's prologue Swiss rider Cancellara also took the overall Tour lead and the legendary yellow leader's jersey - or Maillot Jaune.

Sunday's stage 1 of the Tour de France 2012 is 198 kilometers and will lead the Tour de France peloton from Liege to an exciting stage finish in Seraing, Belgium.

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