Big Fabian Cancellara of Saxo Bank powered to the victory Saturday in the 2.4 mile prologue to open the Amgen Tour of California.

Cancellara won the prologue for the second successive year as Saxo aims to please its American bike supplier, Specialized. Cancellara ripped through the course in Sacramento in 4 minutes 32.90 seconds, beating runner-up and two-time defending AToC winner Levi Leipheimer, who was the last man on the course.

Four-time U.S. TT champ David Zabriskie of Garmin-Slipstream rounded out the podium in 4:35.55. He was at the top of the charts until Cancellara powered across the line.

Michael Rogers, one of the top challengers for Leipheimer, came in four in 4:35.69, followed by Thor Hushovd of the Cervelo TestTeam. Big George Hincapie of Columbia-High Road, Tom Boonen of QuickStep, Mark Renshaw of Columbia-High Road, Svein Tuft of Garmin-Slipstream and some guy named Lance Armstrong of Astana rounded out the top 10.

Interesting note about the top 10. All were on bicycles manufactured by companies in North America, with nine from the U.S. Cancellara and Boonen on Specialized, Leipheimer and Armstrong on Treks, Zabriskie and Tuft on Felt, Rogers, Hincapie and Renshaw on Scott, and Hushovd on Cervelo (Canada).

Garmin’s Christian VandeVelde had a tough day, finishing in 4:41 and likely taking himself out of the running for the overall. Floyd Landis, too, finished 20 seconds off the Cancellara’s pace in his return to major stage racing for the first time since winning the 2006 Tour de France.

I expect it to be a two-man race between Leipheimer and Rogers now, though Zabriskie and maybe even Cancellara could surprise if they can get over the mountains. Z would seem to have the edge there, but Cancellara is a determined fellow as he showed in his Olympics ride last year.

The stages that come down to sprints should be something to behold with Tour of Qatar winner Boonen going against Columbia’s Mark Cavendish and also Cervelo sprinter Thor Hushovd. These cats are three of the best in the world.