Cancellara wins Tour's first stage

MONACO, France, July 4 (UPI) -- Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara won the first stage of the 2009 Tour de France cycling race Saturday in Monaco, France.

Cancellara, a time-trial specialist who was one of the last riders on the course Saturday, finished the 9.6-mile time trial in 19 minutes, 32 seconds.

The Olympic gold medalist captured his fourth career stage victory for Team Saxo Bank over Team Astana's Alberto Contador of Spain by 18 seconds.

England's Bradley Wiggins of Garmin-Slipstream was third, one second behind Contador. Andreas Kloden, a bronze medal winner at the 2000 Olympic Games and the second-place finisher at the Tour de France in 2004 and 2006, came in fourth, 22 seconds behind the leader.

Lance Armstrong of the United States opened with a 10th-place finish at the start of his quest to win the Tour a record eighth time.

"It's a difficult course," said Armstrong, a member of Team Astana. "It's very technical and it was hard to find a rhythm."