winner Óscar Freire. The next week, Cancellara lined up to race the E3 Prijs Vlaanderen. He missed out on the victory after Belgian rider Tom Boonen edged out Cancellara for the win. Eight days later, Cancellara raced the Tour of Flanders and came in 53rd place after his moves were not successful. The last classic Cancellara raced in the 2007 season was the famed Paris–Roubaix, which he finished in 19th place. After the slow start to the season, Cancellara began to achieve success in June. He rode the Tour de Suisse and won the opening time trial, along with the final stage that was also a time trial. With the opening stage victory in the Tour de Suisse, Cancellara led the race for a few stages before losing it to teammate Fränk Schleck after stage four. Cancellara continued his success in the time trial with a victory in the Swiss national time trial. Cancellara won the prologue of the Tour de France in London, defeating Andreas Klöden of by thirteen seconds. During stage two, he was caught up in a very large crash which brought down an estimated thirty riders. He crossed the finish line nursing his left hand but appeared to be fine during the yellow jersey presentation. The next day, he won the third stage in Compiègne after he caught and overtook the breakaway group just from the finish line. Cancellara held the yellow jersey until stage seven, the Tour's first mountain stage. Cancellara returned to the Road World Championships in September with the aims to defend his time trial crown. He achieved his goal and won the time trial by 52 seconds over second-place finisher László Bodrogi. Three days later, Cancellara raced the road race, but did not finish the course. 2008: Olympic champion Cancellara won the prologue of the Tour of California ahead of Olympic track gold medalist Bradley Wiggins in his first race of the season. Two weeks later, he won the second edition of Italian Monte Paschi Eroica ahead of Italian rider Alessandro Ballan. Cancellara then rode the Tirreno–Adriatico where he won stage five time trial to Recanati, which allowed him to take the race lead. Cancellara would go on to win the race by sixteen seconds over the second place rider. Just a few days later in the Milan–San Remo classic monument race, Cancellara broke away from a leading group in the final