David Zabriskie won one of the fastest individual time trials in Tour de France history at an average speed of 54.680 kph in the opening stage on Saturday.

The American narrowly beat his former boss and six-time race winner Lance Armstrong by just two seconds at the 19km time trial from Fromentine to Noirmoutier-en-l'Ile.

"I didn't think I could beat Armstrong today," said Zabriskie, who is taking part in his first Tour.

Zabriskie, who left Armstrong's team this season to join Danish outfit CSC, was not really surprised by the victory as the 26-year-old specialist had won one of the main time trials in the last Giro d'Italia in Firenze.

In Saturday's time trial on Tour de France, the two Americans left the rest of the field far behind with an almost fastest speed.

In 1994, Briton Chris Boardman won the Tour prologue at 55.152 kph, but over a much shorter distance of 7.2 km around Lille.

But Zabriskie beat the fastest average speed for a time trial over a comparable length set by compatriot and three-time Tour winner Greg LeMond in 1989. LeMond rode the 24.5 km of the Tour's final stage between Versailles and Paris at 54.545 kph.

Source: Xinhua