September 12, 2002- (Hokkaido, Japan) – Greetings from Hokkaido, Japan! Day one of racing has wrapped up at the Tour of Hokkaido and it was a successful day for the Canucks in the prologue. Andrew Pinfold finished 2nd overall this afternoon, finishing the 2.5km prologue in 00:03:13.38, just 1.37 seconds behind the winner. He will wear the points jersey tomorrow. Chris Sheppard finished 9th, five seconds back; Andreas Hestler finished 12th, six seconds back; Dominique Perras finished 16th, eight seconds back; and Matt Toulouse finished 53rd, 18 seconds back.

Team Canada sits first overall in the team classification, tied with a Japanese team, Bridgestone Anchor, four seconds ahead of another Japanese team, Nippon Hodo.

Tomorrow's stage is a 176km route and one that will have a large impact on the final outcome of the race. It finishes with a major climb of about 740 meters over the final 16km of the stage.

Lots of fun so far. Things have are going well. The guys are all focused and looking forward to tomorrow when the real race starts.