Fabian Cancellara has been World Time Trial Champion four times (2006, 2007, skipped 2008, 2009, 2010), won gold in the Beijing Olympics, and was World Junior Champion in 1998 and ’99. Since 2002 he’s been the Swiss national time trial champion ever year except for 2003 and 2010. Nearly ever time trial Cancellara has started over the years, he’s been the favorite. But when you’re on top, at some point there is nowhere to go but down. He’s been incredible to watch, but what I like even more about his is that he takes the ups and downs with grace and humility.
Even though Cancellara didn’t ride a perfect time trial, he’s shown that he’s on good form and he’s well suited to the relatively flat road race course. It’s very possible that we could see him with a much more visible rainbow jersey next season.
It’s interesting that Bradley Wiggins simply paced himself at a particular wattage on his SRM rather than relying on time checks. No radio, just a number on his powermeter. He didn’t reveal what that number was, but I’m guessing around 420 watts. Most of us couldn’t hold that for 5 minutes.
“We decided to choose a power and target that. We got so much data from TTs. A couple of TTs I’ve gone out way too hard and paid the price. Today we decided to pick a power, target that for the first half, and try to up it a little bit on the second lap. I believe we got it all out today. That worked out perfect and I think I will try that more for the future.”
On another note, Jack and Richie have secured a second starting place for Australia in the TT at London 2012 after both finished in the top six today. The first starting position is secured through nation ranking but the additional place was determined by today’s results. Well done fellas.
- Svein Tuft, who just signed with Green Edge for next year, rode to 13th place.
Results
1 Tony Martin (Germany) 0:53:43.85
2 Bradley Wiggins (Great Britain) 0:01:15.83
3 Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland) 0:01:20.59
4 Bert Grabsch (Germany) 0:01:31.76
5 Jack Bobridge (Australia) 0:02:13.86
6 Richie Porte (Australia) 0:02:29.54
7 David Millar (Great Britain) 0:02:45.62
8 Lieuwe Westra (Netherlands) 0:03:18.52
9 Alexandr Dyachenko (Kazakhstan) 0:03:19.76
10 Jakob Fuglsang (Denmark) 0:03:30.59