Utahn wears yellow

NOIRMOUTIER EN L'ILE, France — The most familiar face of American cycling and a very new face rode away from the field on Saturday in the first stage of the Tour de France.

There is nothing particularly unique about Lance Armstrong having a good day on these roads — and Armstrong had a very good one Saturday, opening an early and impressive time gap on his strongest rivals for the overall title.

Not quite as expected, however, was the arrival of Dave Zabriskie, a 26-year-old from Salt Lake City who left Armstrong's team last year and now rides for CSC. Zabriskie not only matched up with his former boss, but he beat Armstrong by two seconds over the straight and flat 11.8-mile time trial course.

Zabriskie has won time trials at major races before — it is his only real specialty — but the Tour de France is another thing entirely. Nevertheless, Zabriskie, who is considered something of a free spirit, will be wearing the yellow jersey of the race leader when the Tour continues on Sunday with a flat stage along the Atlantic coast.

"I never thought this would happen. Never ever, ever," Zabriskie said.

After finishing the course in 20 minutes, 51 seconds, Zabriskie sat by his team van in a parking lot near the finish line and waited to see if his time would hold up.

"Bjarne (team director Bjarne Riis) kept saying, 'Catch the motorcycle, catch the motorcycle,' and of course, you can't catch the motorcycle," Zabriskie said.

He nearly did, setting a new speed record of 33.89 m.p.h. for a full Tour stage. Zabriskie's ride came early in the day and Armstrong was the last rider on the course, some three hours later. In between, no one came close to Zabriskie's time.

"How fast did you go?" CSC teammate Bobby Julich screamed when he wheeled into the parking lot and spotted Zabriskie. The younger rider just shrugged.

It isn't easy to wear yellow in the Tour, but nothing has particularly been easy for Zabriskie. Growing up in Salt Lake City, he was neither a Mormon nor a wild non-Mormon — his description of the only two choices available for a young person. So he chose to spend time alone riding his bike.

Zabriskie was good enough with his local club to earn an invitation to the U.S. National team training camp in Colorado Springs, and he joined that development program after high school. He signed his first pro contract with U.S. Postal but never made it onto a Tour team with Armstrong.