Criterium du Dauphiné Prologue: Boom wins from Vinokourov and Wiggins

Lars Boom of Rabobank, a former world cyclo-cross champion and also an expert time trialler, won today's Prologue of the 2011 Criterium du Dauphiné in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, with Alexander Vinokourov of Astana second and Team Sky's Bradley Wiggins third.

At just 5.4km, today's course may have been short, but lots of twists and turns as well as traffic islands, roundabouts and assorted street furniture meant that it was highly technical.

Slippery roads as a result of a downpour this morning presented an additional hazard for earlier starters including Team Sky's Geraint Thomas, who had been hopeful of challenging for the victory today.

The Welshman, one of the first riders out today, put in a time of 6 minutes 35 seconds to make himself provisional leader at that stage, his time matched by another time trial specialist, HTC-Highroad's Tony Martin, but others went quicker as the rain stopped and the sun came out.

By the time Team Sky's Bradley Wiggins took to the course in the colours of British national time trial champion, the roads had dried out, and his time of 6 minutes 23 seconds was 3 seconds inside the previous best, which had been set by the AG2R rider, Blel Kadri.

His lead didn't last long however, as the next but one rider out, Rabobank's Boom, crossed the line in a time of 6 minutes 18 seconds on his way to claiming the Prologue win and the leader's jersey which he will sport in tomorrow's 144km stage from Albertville to Saint-Pierre-de-Chartreuse.

Wiggins would slip a further place down the standings to third with the penultimate rider out on the course, Astana's Alexander Vinokourov, managing to get within 2 seconds of Boom's time.

Criterium du Dauphiné Prologue Result 
1  BOOM Lars              RABOBANK              06' 18"
2  VINOKOUROV Alexandre   ASTANA              + 00' 02"
3  WIGGINS Bradley        TEAM SKY            + 00' 05"
4  DEGENKOLB John         HTC-HIGHROAD        + 00' 06"
5  KADRI Blel             AG2R LA MONDIALE    + 00' 08"
6  POSTHUMA Joost         LEOPARD-TREK        + 00' 09"
7  EVANS Cadel            BMC RACING          + 00' 09"
8  RIBLON Christophe      AG2R LA MONDIALE    + 00' 09"
9  LEMOINE Cyril          SAUR-SOJASUN        + 00' 10"
10 COPPEL Jérôme          SAUR-SOJASUN        + 00' 11"
11 MARTENS Paul           RABOBANK            + 00' 12"
12 DA COSTA Rui           MOVISTAR            + 00' 12"
13 FARRAR Tyler           GARMIN-CERVELO      + 00' 13"
14 KESSIAKOFF Fredrik     ASTANA              + 00' 13"
15 VAN DEN BROECK Jurgen  OMEGA PHARMA-LOTTO  + 00' 14"
16 IRIZAR Markel          RADIOSHACK          + 00' 14"
17 BRAJKOVIC Janez        RADIOSHACK          + 00' 14"
18 PERAUD Jean-Christophe AG2R LA MONDIALE    + 00' 15"
19 HAGEN Edvald Boasson	  TEAM SKY	      + 00' 15"
20 TJALLINGII Maarten	  RABOBANK	      + 00' 15"