Denis Leproux of the Big Matt team, one of only 38 Frenchmen in the Tour de France, goes off first in the prologue time-trial at College Green today at 3.25. It was after six o'clock last evening when the draw for places was made but last year's winner Jan Ullrich is last of the 189 - he sets out at 6.33.

A minute ahead of Ullrich will be Frenchman Richard Virenque (Festina) with Marco Pantani of the Italian Mercatone Uno squad on the streets earlier. Englishman Chris Boardman (GAN), favourite to take the first yellow jersey, is fourth last off.

In Paddy Power's betting on the Tour yesterday in Dublin, Ullrich was the unattractive odds of 5/4. Next are Alex Zuelle and Virenque at 8/1 with Pantani at 9/1, Abraham Olano 10/1 and Bjarne Riis 12/1. After that it's 20/1 Laurent Dufeaux, 25/1 Francesco Casagrande and 3 3/1 Laurent Jalabert, Fernando Escartin, Luc Leblanc and JoseMaria Jiminez.

Because of Ullrich's weight problems he attracted a lot of attention on his arrival at Dublin Castle and he said: "I have bad news - bad news for my opponents. I am in very good condition."

At the start of the season there was concern over the way Ullrich's weight had soared but he said yesterday that after an intensive training routine he is down to just one kilogram more than he was at the start last year.

"I have been to Freibourg University for tests," he added "and they showed that everything was exactly the same as this time last year. I had the `flu but because the Tour is two weeks later this year, I had plenty of time to recover. I will be taking it as easy as possible until the first time-trial."

Although Boardman said he had six wins in the last six weeks, he was playing down his chances of clocking fastest time today.

"This year's prologue is just a bit too short," he said. "You only get five or six minutes to get it right and my form is not exactly as I would like it to be but from experience I know what it takes and I'll be giving it 110 per cent."

As usual with the Tour, a communications centre was set up for the press corps to use but, even though it is in the heart of Dublin, the operators would only accept French francs and even the Tour bank would not exchange punts for francs.