Germany’s Tony Martin ended the long reign of Switzerland’s Fabian Cancellara by powering to the time trial gold at the road world championships on Wednesday.
Martin claimed his maiden world title in the discipline, with Britain’s Bradley Wiggins — a triple Olympic and six-time world champion on the track — winning the silver for his first worlds road medal.
Cancellara, the Olympic champion who had made the discipline his own in the past five years, came close to missing out on a medal in an error strewn performance before claiming the bronze.
Photo: AFP
Martin, a time trial specialist who rides with the HTC-Highroad team, had finished third in the event the past two years to Cancellara.
The only time the Swiss had failed to win the title since 2006 was in 2008, when he opted out of the worlds shortly after his Olympic success in Beijing, allowing Germany’s Bert Grabsch to triumph.
Martin, however, had signaled his form by relegating Cancellara to over a minute and a half on his way to victory in the recent 10th stage of the Tour of Spain.
The German proved that he was fully deserving of the title after speeding his way, at an average of 51.8kph, over the 46.4km course to post a winning time of 53 minutes, 43.85 seconds to beat Wiggins by over a minute.
“For me it is really important to find the right rythm from the start, and I felt early on I was going to go well,” Martin said.
“I had the perfect position and my speed was really fast. After I heard the first split times I was confident and could feel it was my race,” he added.
“I’m getting stronger in my head and I’m getting better at handling the approach to the race,” he said.
Having set a time of 54:59.68, Wiggins had looked set for a third place finish until late errors by Cancellara left him in second place.
It was yet another great result for the Londoner, who made up for crashing out of the Tour de France in July with a broken collarbone by claiming a first ever Grand Tour podium with a third place finish at the Tour of Spain.
Despite his good form, and expectations from elsewhere, Wiggins said he had “no pressure.”
“I didn’t expect anything, to be honest. I just went out and did my ride,” said Wiggins, who opted to use no race radio to keep himself informed on rivals’ time splits.
Cancellara was 10 seconds down on Martin by the first time check after 10.8km, a deficit which grew to 18 at the halfway mark.
It was on the second circuit that the normally unstoppable Swiss capitulated.
Twice he was forced to slow down to avoid hitting the barriers after tight turns. On his second near miss, after negotiating a right-hand bend, Cancellara came to a standstill, losing precious seconds which almost cost him a medal.
He stopped the clock in 55:04.44, finishing just 11 seconds ahead of Grabsch.
“I started well but didn’t find the optimal rhythm and I started to feel that maybe today was not going to be my day,” the Swiss said.
“Mentally, maybe I cracked a bit and I couldn’t give any more,” he added.
“It was a bit of a rollercoaster for me, but Tony’s the deserved winner today,” he said.
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