LIVE - Stage 1

3:26am - Fabian Cancellara wins Stage 1 and takes the first yellow jersey of the 2009 Tour!

2:57am - Andy Schleck has finished the course currently in 12th place and just 38 seconds behind Andreas Kloden - well done Andy! He should be rapt with that. Michael Rodgers on the other hand will be dissapointed to finish 50 seconds off the pace. That is not really the form of someone we can expect to be a GC contendor, especially for a rider whose preference is for races against the clock rather than the mountains. The punters are starting to think that Kloden will be hard to top - he is now into 4/1 to win the days stage.

2:38am - We have a new best time! And its the Astana boys again as Andreas Kloden smashes the 20 minute barrier to set a new benchmark, 8 seconds quicker than Leipheimer. He is now 10/1 to take the stage. Young Czech Roman Kreuziger also put in a quality performance finishing 10 seconds slower than Kloden. Currently out on course are Australian TT champion Michael Rogers, and my tip for the GC Andy Schleck. Hopefully Andy can limit his losses to 45 seconds or less.

2:20am - Frank Schleck lost just over a minute over the course - probably acceptable for him. We are starting to get a few interesting names out now with the likes of Roman Kreuziger and Andreas Kloden out on course.

2:00am - No one has broken into the top 10 for a while now. Frank Schleck, one of the possible GC contendors is out on course. The TT is his major weakness however and he will be looking to limit his time losses to under a minute. The 'Manx' man Mark Cavendish is also out but he looks to be saving himself for the start of the flat road stages tomorrow.

1:26am - Not much to report although the sun is out and we have had a Stuey O'Grady sighting. He finished around 1 minute 20 seconds behind the time of Leipheimer who is now into 12/1 to take the opening stage.

1:04am - Lance won't be in Yellow tonight. His time has been bettered by Tony Martin and then his teammate Levi Leiphiemer who now leads by 3 seconds. The bookies still don't think that is good enough for the win with Levi still around 14/1 to take the stage.

12:41am - Lance has the best time at the finish by 30 seconds averaging 46km/h. However he is the best rider out so far so that was to be expected. The punters don't seem too happy with the performance and he has drifted out over 20/1 on Betfair so maybe not his best performance.

12:16am - And were off! Looks a slightly overcast day in Monaco. In an unusual move Lance Armstrong will begin his 2009 Tour shortly, looking for good early weather conditions. Generally the big names start near the end of the schedule but Lance will give us an early idea of the times to beat.

11:59pm - Looks like there will be some major jersey clash problems this year with Cervelo and Saxo having almost identical jerseys. Predominantly white with black text - could make for confusion when it comes down to the Schleck brothers and Carlos Sastre in the mountains.

11:46pm - Apparently Michael Rogers suffered a bit of crash when doing a practice run of the course yesterday. He has a sore hip but will be fit enough to start the race today. Still it is not an ideal preperation.

Good to see Gabriel Gate back for Tastes of Le Tour kicking off with a delightful onion, anchovie, and olive pizza.

11:30pm - Hello and welcome to live coverage of Stage 1 of the 2009 Tour de France. Today's stage is a 15.5km time trial around Monaco - and my tip is the two-time world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara from team Saxobank. He is currently a $1.74 favourite to win the stage on Betfair.