Bradley Wiggins (Cofidis) has shown himself to be in fine form for the Tour de France prologue in London next month. The Englishman powered over the flat, 4.2-km course in Grenoble to win the prologue of the Dauphine Libere in 4:50.42. Defending champion Levi Leipheimer (Discovery Channel) and Andrei Kaschechkin (Astana) finished second and third, respectively, at 1.45 and 1.88.

Because of the French parliamentary elections, the organization agreed to provide a 10-minute break after each group of 19 riders. This was to allow people to cross the street to vote. The accommodation lengthened the event to nearly four hours.

The prologue began in the rain, and Stef Clement (Bouygues Telecom) and Volodymyr Dyudya (Milram) set the early standards with a 4:57.11 and a 4:57.33, respectively. The rain had stopped when George Hincapie (Discovery Channel) took the lead with his 4:52:54, and the roads were dry when the final riders traversed the course.

Kaschechkin took the lead from Hincapie with a 4:52.30. Wiggins was 0:04 behind teammate Sylvain Chavanel at the two-km checkpoint, but he blitzed the second half of the course to overtake Kashechkin and win the prologue.

In the overall, Wiggins leads Leipheimer by 0:01 and Kaschechkin by 0:02. Stage 1 will be a mainly flat, 219-km run from Grenoble to Roanne that will merely require Wiggins to finish with the bunch to keep his race lead. (There are no time bonuses in this year?s Dauphine Libere.) The stage should end in a sprint. Who will take it? Check in at www.roadcycling.com and find out!