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Wiggins put his track speed to use on the power course.

Hincapie was a crowd favorite in his new team kit

Farrar (Slipstream-Chipotle) was third on the day.

Cancellera took a commanding win in Sunday's Amgen Tour of California prologue.

What more fitting an opening to the Tour of California than the best racers in the world flying down asphalt between rows of palm trees, and who a more fitting winner than current world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara (CSC)? The Swiss rider turned a time of 3:51.211 to handily beat second-place rider Bradley Wiggins (High Road) by four seconds over the 2.1-mile course. “With my beautiful rainbow jersey, to win here in Palo Alto, it is really good,” Cancellara said.

World champion Paolo Bettini signs autographs before the start of the Prologue

Kelly Benefits rider Kevin Lacombe speeds past the famed Palo Alto Bicycles.

Astana’s Sergey Ivanov

Rock Racing’s Michael Creed

Australian national TT champion Adam Hansen (Team Highroad)

Look out, Bradley Wiggins, Mike Sinyard’s riding the Tour of California. In addition to riding the celebrity prologue, Sinyard and a few friends will be riding the Tour course, from Thursday’s stage on. This means an early departure, but some quality miles for Specialized’s founder.

Shimano was promoting its Coast cruiser bike technology at the prologue.

Shimano wasn’t taking any chances, however, and used an, um, aero helmet for its rider.

This isn’t a Photoshop trick. Before the pros rolled out, a celebrity round of time trials was held on the course.

Like the frames and saddles, Rock’s wheels are also branded

The shoe covers aren’t Rock Racing issue. “Hey, that’s how I rock ’em,” Creed said.

Rock Racing rider Mike Creed and team mechanic John Sessa hustled to get a borrowed time trial bike together before Creed’s start.

High Road is running a combination of Hed, Shimano and Zipp wheels

The down tube and bottom bracket area are massive for enhanced aerodynamics and power transfer.

A side view of the custom bar/stem, with its massive aero stem.

Note the spacers under the arm pads for adjustable height.

High Road manager Bob Stapleton said Wiggins’ handlebar/stem was made outside of the bike industry, but wouldn’t say where.

Most notably, Wiggins’ custom handlebars are similar to a pursuit set-up

The bike of a likely winner of the third Amgen Tour of California prologue. World and Olympic pursuit champion Bradley Wiggins’ time trial machine is similar in some ways to a track bike.

Jennie Reed and the Madison team of Colby Pearce and Bobby Lea turned in a pair of silver-medal performances on Sunday as the Copenhagen Track World Cup concluded in Denmark. That raised the final U.S. medal count to five.

The Specialized Miura glasses will be seen on the faces of Toyota-United riders during the Tour of California.

Fulcrum's RedCarbon wheels are carbon mountain clinchers.

Shimano's new WH-7850-C24-TL wheel features a carbon-wrapped tubeless rim.

Shimano new WH-M778 (XT) wheel uses the new 15mm axle design.

Shimano's 2009 SLX group

The TCR's toptube is perforated for rear brake cable routing.

High Road’s new Giant prototype TCR (or, as the seattube states: TCR Advanced SL Team).

Things were back to normal for Sunday’s finale of the Giro della Provincia di Grosseto following Saturday’s rider protest when the peloton refused to contest in what they called a dangerous finish. There was no strike Sunday as Danilo Napolitano (Lampre) grabbed his second win of the 2008 season, out-sprinting Mattia Gavazzi (Preti Mangimi-Prisma Stufe) with Filippo Pozzato (Liquigas) crossing the line third. Pozzato, winner of the opening stage, claims the overall in the new three-day stage race.

Russian veteran Alexandre Botcharov (Crédit Agricole) secured his first stage-race victory of his career Sunday while French attacker Sylvain Chavanel (Cofidis) claimed the finale in the 35th Tour Mediterranean. Chavanel — who saw his 2007 season short-circuited when he was among the casualties on the Kemmelberg melee in Ghent-Wevelgem last April, which left him with 65 stitches and a triple-fractured wrist — looks back in good form with a solid win ahead of three fellow escapees.

It’s called the Ruta del Sol – the Race of the Sun – but rain was one of the main protagonists in the opening stage of the Vuelta Ciclista a Andalucía, which saw Tour de France favorite Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) kick start his season. Despite the presence of big-time sprinters such as Alessandro Petacchi (Milram), two relatively unknown riders chugged away from the peloton in the early going of the rainy 123.4km stage from Benahavis to Alora across the hills near Malaga.

Giant unveils prototype TCR

For the first year, the Amgen Tour of California is opening with a dead-flat prologue, a 2.1-mile runway down University Avenue in Palo Alto into Stanford University. World and Olympic individual pursuit champion Bradley Wiggins and world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara are among the favorites. On paper, the sub-five-minute format has Team High Road’s Wiggins written all over it —it’s virtually the same duration as an individual pursuit effort.

Ruslan Ivanov, a man who for two years believed his career was over, has resurrected himself with overall victory at the Tour de Langkawi.

George Hincapie sprints to the finish line of the Prologue at the Tour of California

David Millar did a trainer ride the evening before the Amgen Tour of California’s prologue, in which he and teammate Bradley Wiggins are heavily favored.

Most of the CSC bikes had stock Shimano Dura-Ace pulley wheels on the rear derailleurs, but a few TT bikes, such as Stuart O’Grady's and Jason McCartney’s, were running FSA's ceramic bearing pulley wheels.

CSC mechanic Roger Theel said he didn’t know who made the custom chainring for Julich, who has often favored the elliptical rings for time trials. An Ultegra derailleur is used because Theel couldn't get the funky rings to work with a Dura-Ace model, he said.