Prologue - February 14: Sacramento (ITT), 3.9 km/2.4 mi

A who's who of sprint time trialists. With all the fuss over the Team Columbia's TT rides - they appeared to have done quite well.

1 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team Saxo Bank                4.32.9 (50.294 km/h)
2 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Astana                          0.01.2
3 David Zabriskie (USA) Garmin - Slipstream             0.02.7
4 Michael Rogers (Aus) Team Columbia - Highroad         0.02.8
5 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervélo TestTeam                   0.03.1
6 George Hincapie (USA) Team Columbia - Highroad        0.03.4
7 Tom Boonen (Bel) Quick Step                                                     
8 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Team Columbia - Highroad           0.04.1
9 Svein Tuft (Can) Garmin - Slipstream                  0.04.2
10 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana                         0.04.3
11 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Team Columbia - Highroad        0.04.9

" . . . For the second year-in-a-row Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) has come to the Tour of California and opened up with a prologue win, covering the short but technical (that means it had 4 corners) 3.9 km course around California's capital at just over 51.62 kph (32.1 mph) (cyclingnews.com).

“It was like being in the Tour de France out there on the course today,” said Cancellara. “The last time I raced in front of so many people was in London last year."

All well known names we could have guessed at; I hear Svein Tuft is a character, like the kid from "Into The Wild" - someone to watch.