Tour de France 2012: Biggest Surprises Through Day 2 ?

Peter Sagan captured stage one of the Tour de France on Sunday. However, Sagan still finds himself trailing after a subpar performance during the day one prologue.

After the Tour’s prologue went very nearly according to plan a day ago, several names are beginning to rise and fall amongst the leaderboard that are somewhat unexpected.

What does this mean, if anything, for these fresh faces amongst the leader boards? Fortunately, or unfortunately for them, a Tour hasn’t ever been won on a solid performance on just the first or second day of the heralded event.

After all, the Tour de France isn’t a sprint; it’s an endurance test to the maximum degree.

A year ago Philippe Gilbert took the first yellow jersey but failed to maintain that momentum and faded throughout the race.

Peter Sagan

Peter Sagan led at the first time check during the prologue on Saturday. That was until a mishap at the second roundabout caused an ensuing slow-down. This blip on an otherwise solid run cost him a top-ten finish on day one of the race.

However, Sagan bounced back on day two by edging out race leader Fabian Cancellera.

His impressive performance so far has vaulted him into race winner discussions. If you didn’t recognize this Slovakian born racers name before today, it’d be due diligence to look him up after two impressive showings.

Cadel Evans Falling Behind?

The defending champion Evans isn’t out of the race just yet, but he hasn’t done enough to keep himself on pace with the leaders to this point. He’s fallen to eighth place and 17 seconds behind the leader Fabian Cancellera.

Evans is a heavy favorite of this year’s race after dominating a year ago.

Anything can happen and will happen in the coming weeks. Cadel is going to need a lot of things to fall in his favor if he is to maintain the pace and gain ground on the leaders.

Fabian Cancellera maintains lead

Cancellera is regarded by many as one of the finest time-trial specialists in cycling. Competitor and closely trailing Bradley Wiggins of England had this to say about him:

“He is the best in the world” at time trials, Wiggins said.

Cancerllera may not be the favorite to continue his performance throughout the test of the Tour, but he has certainly impressed in the early running. It will be interesting to see if he can keep up with the bigger named racers as the miles begin to rack up.

Follow Mike on Twitter @BigHoagowski