Zabriskie wins prologue

"We're not expecting [George] to be in the same form he was last year," warned Discovery sporting director Dirk Demol in French newspaper L'Equipe.

But Hincapie, after a crash while training in South Carolina then another near his European base in Gerona, Spain, apppeared slender and fit three weeks after resuming training.

He and Zabriskie zoomed around the Annecy lakeside course, leaving Stuart O'Grady and the rest of the field a full four seconds back.

Zabriskie, who finished second overall in the Tour of California behind Floyd Landis, clocked his best performance on the continent since the 2005 Tour where he heartbreakingly lost his yellow jersey through a crash in the finale of the first week team time trial.

On Sunday, he negotiated the course without a hitch, zooming in the second part of the 4.1km circuit.

And even though the temperatures remain unseasonably cool in the French Alps, there was definitely the impression that a new season was beginning with many cyclists making their first appearance since April. Among them, Alejandro Valverde, winner of two spring classics, Alexander Vinokourov, and Hincapie team-mate Yaroslav Popovych who many believe will be the secret weapon on the Tour of the team formerly spearheaded by Lance Armstrong.

After the Ukranian finished ten seconds back of Hincapie, one is tempted to take a little more seriously the Discovery camp's assertion that the native New Yorker could be their man for July.

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