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picturesque spa town of Vittel.<br />
1969’s Tour was the first<br />
that opened with an official<br />
prologue. However, the ITT<br />
route around Roubaix that year<br />
was 10 km long. That’s 2 km –<br />
twenty-five percent – further<br />
than would be permitted under<br />
the current rules. So was it a<br />
prologue or not?<br />
That was a minor infraction<br />
compared with 1971, when the<br />
prologue – yes, that was its<br />
official designation – not only<br />
stretched to 11 km but also took<br />
the form of a team time trial,<br />
thus breaking two of the UCI’s<br />
‘rules’ in one go.<br />
So the Tour was willing<br />
to play fast and loose with the<br />
concept of a prologue right<br />
from the start. But that’s nothing<br />
compared with the imagination<br />
on display on the other side of<br />
the Alps.<br />
The first prologue of the<br />
Giro d’Italia came in 1968, but<br />
it wasn’t really a time trial at<br />
all. Instead, the 130 riders were<br />
divided into ten groups of<br />
thirteen, each of which raced<br />
separately around the streets<br />
of Campione d’Italia, a tiny<br />
exclave of Italy surrounded<br />
entirely by Switzerland. The<br />
fastest man around the 5.7<br />
km course, France’s Charly<br />
Grosskost, wore the maglia<br />
rosa the next day, but his time<br />
did not count towards the<br />
general classification – rather<br />
neatly breaking the third and<br />
last of the UCI’s rules.<br />
So none of the things<br />
mentioned in the UCI rules<br />
appear to belong to the essence<br />
of a prologue. More surprising<br />
still is the complete omission<br />
from the rules of what is surely<br />
the most important feature<br />
of anything purporting to call<br />
itself a ‘prologue’.<br />
It is often assumed that the<br />
idea of having a short individual<br />
time trial at the start of a Grand<br />
Tour must have originated with<br />
the Tour de France. Specifically,<br />
the idea is usually credited to<br />
Jean Leulliot, a journalist and<br />
race organiser, who suggested<br />
the prologue (if such it was)<br />
to the 1967 Tour. But in fact<br />
the first Grand Tour to feature<br />
such an ITT on the opening day<br />
was the 1964 Vuelta, when the<br />
riders tackled an 11 km course<br />
around Benidorm.<br />
However, there is a crucial<br />
difference. This earlier ‘prologue’<br />
was officially designated Stage<br />
1b of that year’s Vuelta, the 42<br />
km flat Stage 1a having been<br />
held earlier the same day. Very<br />
short ITTs designated ‘Stage<br />
1b’ were also held after, but on<br />
the same day as, Stages 1a of the<br />
Vueltas of 1966 (3.5 km, Murcia),<br />
1967 (4.1 km, Vigo) and 1968 (4<br />
km, Zaragoza).<br />
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