Live - Tour de France prologue

Prologue - Rotterdam, 8.9km

LIVE TEXT COMMENTARY (all times BST)

To get involved, please use Twitter, 606 or text us your views & comments on 81111 (UK) or +44 7786200666 (worldwide). (Not all contributions can be used. Messages will be charged at your standard operator rate)

By Peter Scrivener

From Anon, via text: "Just moved into new apartment in Rotterdam overlooking the Willemsbrug Bridge. These Europeans love their cycling. I'm getting into it myself." (Please remember to put your names on texts!)

1545: What did I tell you? Germany's Martin breezes over the line in 10 seconds over 10 minutes, 25 seconds quicker than BMC's Brent Bookwalter - still very early days though.

Pigeons in the Park on 606: "Cancellara all the way - but I'm most interested in if the Schlecks have improved."

1535: Iban Mayoz sets the standard, but expect his 11 minutes, 10 seconds effort to be beaten very soon, particularly as Columbia's Tony Martin has just posted the quickest time at the intermediate time check. News also coming to me that this live text is not updating particularly quickly. So if anybody can read this, please bear with me while the technical boffins sort out the problems.

1532: Many of the main protaganists go out later. Seven-time winner Lance Armstrong, world time-trial champion (and prologue favourite) Fabian Cancellara and 2007 and 2009 Tour champion Alberto Contador are the last three to go from 1830 BST.

1525: The seven other British riders in the race go out at the following times (all BST): Jeremy Hunt 1527, Dan Lloyd 1611, Charly Wegelius 1632, Geraint Thomas 1639, Mark Cavendish 1737, David Millar 1743 and Steve Cummings 1807.

1520: Talking of saddles...seamless eh? Britain's Bradley Wiggins has a new one for the Tour. He is one of the early riders out on the Rotterdam course at 1555 BST. Team Sky have elected to put him out early after looking at weather reports. Heavy rain is expected later in the day.

1517: 196 riders will follow Echeverria at minute intervals. It should have been 197, but Spain's Xavier Florencio was withdrawn on the eve of the race by his Cervelo Test Team for using a product containing the banned substance ephedrine. He used it, without the team doctor's say-so for saddle sores.

1515: Spanish rider Iban Mayoz Echeverria is first down the ramp in Rotterdam and the Tour de France is off.

1510: As always, this live text commentary will be nothing without your input. Let me know your thoughts on all things Tour de France. Please use Twitter, 606 or text us your views & comments on 81111 (UK) or +44 7786200666 (worldwide). (Not all contributions can be used. Messages will be charged at your standard operator rate)

1505: The TV coverage doesn't start for a little while, so that leaves us a bit of time to look at British chances with BBC Radio 5 live commentator Peter Slater.

1500: Hello all. The 97th staging of the world's biggest cycling race will get under way with an 8.9km prologue in the Dutch city of Rotterdam.

1445: One prologue. Nine flat stages. Six mountain stages with three summit finishes. Four medium mountain stages. One individual time-trial. Eleven new stage towns. A total distance of 3,642km of cycling. Welcome to the 2010 Tour de France.

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