Cyclingnews.com profiled David Millar and his early season goals and accomplishments to date. Said Millar: “Things have been beyond expectations, and that’s saying something! We set the bar high at Qatar and it has laid the foundations as regards the team’s morale and spirit.”

OH HAPPY DAYS!! ASO has shown why they are great bike race organizers today! They put us all back on our team buses and sent us 110 km down the road to race just the last 74 km of today’s stage. This is due to storm warnings and horrible rain and wind (up to 100 km gusts).

It was going to be California stage 4 all over again. But now we’re sitting in the back of the bus exploring Pate’s new racing concept. It involves a stage race comprised of only time trials with two per day. The total distance cannot surpass 45 km for the day and the shortest cannot be less than 5km.

But here’s the novelty: mystery distances! You don’t know the race length until you reach the finish. No indications on the road or before the start. And to add a bit of spice, every morning you can opt for the use of a moto to pace you for one of the day’s stages. Genius!

Sometimes a day at the office just doesn’t go as planned. Watch how a roadside fan captured Tyler’s day at work during the opening prologue of Paris-Nice. Bummed and banged up, Tyler is fine and did finish the prologue.

WARNING: Contains Offensive Language. NOT SUITABLE FOR MINORS and should be viewed at work cautiously.

With his 10th place finish in today’s prologue, the 23-year-old Australian Trent Lowe (left) is just 1″ down in the best young rider classification, currently lead by Andrly Grivko. Overall the team put in a solid performance and is currently third in the team classification, just 3″ off of Credit Agricole.

Mother Nature ruled the results of today’s prologue with wetter, windier conditions taking over middle part of the 4.6 km course less than an hour into the event. The first 40 and the last dozen riders enjoyed drier conditions, while the rest of the riders were slowed down by slick roads and colder, denser air. The unfavorable conditions prompted Slipstream/Chipotle to change from Zipp disc wheels to Zipp 808 tubulars later in the event.

“There are few things worse than having a chrono performance compromised because of the weather. Considering I was one of the last to go before it started drying out more, I’m satisfied with my result,” said Millar. “Trent and Danny did great rides and Trent put considerable time on the other climbers.”

Fortunately, Danny Pate (right) and Trent Lowe took full advantage of the dry conditions that greeted their early starts to clock two of the top ten times. Under a heavy drizzle, 2007 Paris-Nice prologue winner David Millar still managed to finish 12th.

One victim of the slick conditions was Tyler Farrar. Unfortunately he risked too much on what looked like one of the day’s best rides and ended up crashing on a wet corner. Down but not out, Farrar managed to finish.

Slipstream prologue standings
1. Thor Hushovd 5:28

6. Danny Pate 5:35
10. Trent Lowe 5:38
12. David Millar 5:40
74. Christophe Laurent 5:54
85. Tom Peterson 5:57
99. Christian Vande Velde 5:58
126. Lucas Euser 6:06
160. Tyler Farrar 8:42 (after crashing)

Slipstream GC after prologue
1. Thor Hushovd 5:38 +

6. Danny Pate :06
10. Trent Lowe :09
12. David Millar :11
74. Christophe Laurent :26
85. Tom Peterson :28
99. Christian Vande Velde :30
126. Lucas Euser :37
160. Tyler Farrar 3:13

L’Equipe, the largest sports daily in France, and possibly Europe, included a full-page profile of David Millar as part of their Paris-Nice preview. The profile talks to David about his hopes for Paris-Nice, his role with Slipstream/Chipotle and his dreams for a clean sport.

David says: “We [the sport of cycling] are on the forefront of the anti-doping movement. I want to believe that by 2012, cycling will be the flag-bearer for anti-doping.”

Download article here. Note that it is in French.

Tom Peterson (left) goes for a morning spin pre-prologue in Amilly.

Here are the start times for your favorite Slipstream/Chipotle riders:

186. Danny Pate 12:11:00
185. Trent Lowe 12:31:00
182. Lucas Euser 12:51:00
183. Tyler Farrar 13:11:00
184. Christophe Laurent 13:31:00
187. Tom Peterson 13:51:00
188. Christian Vande Velde 14:11:00
181. David Millar 14:31:00

Getting to know the ‘géant de Provence’
March 8, 2008:

We’ve all made it to Paris-Nice healthy, fit and ready to race. Nigh a miracle considering the time of year and the rough weather and illness that was going around California. Not to mention the usual shenanigans between ASO and UCI. I don’t even see there being much point in me commenting on that. I mean what is there to say which isn’t obvious and hasn’t already been said? It’s bollocks is what it is.

The whole team got here Friday. It’s given us a chance to settle in and rest up rather than chasing planes and trains. Of course when I say settle in I mean try and physically fit myself and Christian and our bags into a mouse-size room. At first, we stood around in absolute amazement that a hotel room so small could possibly exist. Then we came up with a new furniture arrangement that made it possible for us to simply open our cases while in the room at the same time (we don’t ask for much).

I needed the rest when I got here as I’d spent the day before on a recon trip in Provence to do some research of the legendary Mont Ventoux. We have a stage finish at Mont Serein, which is three quarters of the way up on the north side of the Ventoux. Normally, races go all the way to the top of the south side which most bike fans are familiar with because of the lunar landscape, Tommy Simpson Memorial and legendary Tour de France battles that have taken place on that side.

The north side is not quite as well known. I’ve only raced up there once and that was in the 2001 Dauphine. I climbed well that day, crossing the top with Christophe Moreau (who went on to win the race overall) and then doing the fastest, most crazy descent of my life to catch up to the climbers. I decided that this was not a week to be relying on such rose-tinted memories and that I had better climb it again and remove any complacency that may have existed. And there’s the fact everybody says the north side is easier than the south, something I wanted to confirm for myself.

Nicole, Zorro and I hit the road on Thursday late afternoon and had a turbulent drive from Girona to Malaucène (the village at the very foot of the north side and from now on to be referred to as base camp). It was turbulent because the Mistral was blowing strong. It was so strong in fact that when I perused L’Equipe on Friday, I saw that the windsurfing world speed record was broken! Some mad man near Marseille got up to 90 km/hr. I dunno man, that seems like crazy talk to me. Anyway, the wind was stupid strong.

By a freakish twist of fate, the Gutowskys who work at Slipstream and have become friends these few last months, have a house at base camp, making the whole recon plan all the more feasible. So Thursday lunch time I set off from base camp with illusions of doing a two-hour loop then climbing the ‘géant’ twice, first time easy, second time hard. Oh how foolish I was! The first time up, I realised it wasn’t possible to reach the top easily. But fortunately Goot was there so when I reached the top frozen and semi-demoralized, he could pile me into the car and return me to base camp.

I wasn’t happy. So after showering, eating and snoozing I decided I was going to have to give it another go. I stumbled out of the bedroom at 4:30 pm declaring this to the rest of the recon party. I suppose this is where the newly crowned windsurfing world speed record holder would call my actions crazy talk. I still felt average and the wind was blowing and the temperature dropping, but I was determined to conquer the beast. I set off at 5 pm with instructions to Nicole and Kathy to meet me at the top at 6 pm–and to bring Zorro, he’d like the snow.

Twenty minutes later I realized what a stupid man I was. But my stupidity did not exceed my stubbornness and so onwards and upwards I plodded. Any ideas of going race pace up there by this point were laying on the pillow at base camp where they should have stayed. Anyway, I was no longer doing this just for myself. Zorro would love the snow and Nicole must see the view. So to make a slow story fast, everybody got to the top, and I now know the north side of Mont Ventoux intimately. The rose tinted glasses have fallen off and are laying smashed somewhere in Malaucène.

Today is the prologue of Paris-Nice, my principal objective for the start of this year. I feel good, relaxed and strong. Our team is giving off an aura of relaxed strength as well. All is well for now.