53.7 km/h was the speed of chronoman Fabian Cancellara in the prologue in London. In a Tour, the fastest ever stage, excluding the prologues and time trials, was accomplished in 1999 when the étape from Laval to Blois in the flat Loire valley was ridden at an average speed of 50.355 km/h. That day, it was Super-Mario Cipollini who got the honours.
The Italian is still in the record books and riders were not in a hurry yesterday to try to wipe out his name. At 35.81 km/h the stage was one of the slowest one in modern cycling. However, it still is a lot faster than the early versions of the Tour, with their long 300- or 400-kilometre stages. The slowest ever average for a whole Tour was set in 1919, when Belgian Firmin Lambot clocked in at 24.056 km/h.
