THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
Cancellara blitzes world's TT; Zabriskie 2nd
There was never any doubt that Fabian Cancellara was going to win the world elite men’s time trial championship on Thursday. From his first pedal strokes along a cobblestone alleyway backing onto the Salzach River in the historic center of Salzburg, past the house where Mozart lived most of his life, and out into the green pastoral Austrian countryside, the 25-year-old Swiss simply flew around the 50.83km course.
As he raced down the finishing straight, alongside the 17th-century Mirabell Palace, known as “the Taj Mahal of Salzburg,” Cancellara was still pedaling at more than 100 revs per minute, just as he had for the single hour he took to complete his victorious journey. On crossing the line, he was 90 seconds clear of the runner-up, his American CSC teammate Dave Zabriskie, while Kazakhstan’s Alexander Vinokourov, winner of the Vuelta a España last week, took the bronze medal another 20 seconds back.
“It was a perfect race for me,” said Cancellara, who was the fastest at every checkpoint. “When I first saw the course, I knew it was a perfect course for me.”
An awed Zabriskie, who took his first world’s medal, added: “I knew Fabian would be strong, but I didn’t think he’d be Superman. Silver is nice, but it’s better to win, though that doesn’t mean I’m gonna throw it in the garbage.”
On a warm, sunny afternoon, with a brisk north wind blowing the riders home from the far turn in Salzburg’s lake district, Cancellara blitzed the 50.83km course in 1:00:11 for an average speed of 50.664 kph. It was the third fastest world’s speed behind Britain’s Chris Boardman inaugural TT title of 50.832 kph in 1994, and the 50.672 kph of Ukraine’s Sergei Gontchar in 2000.
Cancellara established his lead in the opening 10km, going through the first time split atop the 15-percent grade at Elixhausen 18 seconds faster then Zabriskie, who was already in second place. Vinokourov was only 13th best at 10km, 40 seconds back, after dropping his chain at the foot of the main climb.
The solid Kazakh, who is one of the favorite’s to win Sunday’s world road race, said he wasn’t too disappointed about losing a few seconds. “I was expecting to finish second or third anyway,” he said.
Meanwhile, three-time defending champion Michael Rogers of Australia was having a less-than-stellar day. “I went as hard as I could,” said the tall Aussie. “I was strong on the flat, but I wasn’t as strong as Cancellara and those boys.” By the time final starter Rogers finished with the eighth-place time, Cancellara was already celebrating.
The 6-foot-1, 170-pound Swiss racer has always been an ace time trialist. He won the world junior TT title twice in a row (in 1998 and 1999), and first made his name in the pro ranks by beating Lance Armstrong into second place at the 2004 Tour de France prologue in Liège.
This year, Cancellara showed his diversity by winning Paris-Roubaix in April and the Tour of Denmark in August. The CSC rider didn’t ride this year’s Tour de France, but he did well at the recent Vuelta, taking a close second place to David Millar in the first TT.
Cancellara pulled out of the Vuelta after that 14th stage and returned home to Switzerland to prepare for the world’s, while Millar continued for the final week to complete his second grand tour since his comeback from a two-year drugs suspension.
While the Brit had high hopes of returning to the world’s in style, and perhaps again taking the TT gold medal he won (and later lost because of his admitting to EPO use) in Hamilton, Ontario, three years ago. Instead, Millar couldn’t muster the good form of two weeks ago, and in Salzburg on Thursday he finished only 15th, 3:22 back.
While Zabriskie’s silver medal went nicely with the gold and bronze taken by the U.S. women time trialists on Wednesday, the other American competitor on Thursday, Chris Baldwin of the domestic Toyota-United team, was “having fun” riding his first-ever world’s at age 30.
“I was hoping I could get a top 10,” said Baldwin, who had to be satisfied with 26th out of the 62 starters, with a time of 1:04:53, 4:41 behind Cancellara. “The plan was to start easy and ride into it, but the excitement of being at the world championships got to me. I definitely overcooked it in the first 10K.”
Baldwin was a little upset about being caught by his two-minute man, Vasili Kiryienka of Belarus; but the 25-year-old from the “unknown” Rietumu Bank was the surprise of the day. He was third fastest through the 10km split, still held fourth place at 35km, before he slowed to sixth at the finish, 2:13 behind the winner.
Of the two Canadians who competed Thursday, Ryder Hesjedal came in 22nd, 4:12 back, while Svein Tuft took 28th, at 4:45.
