This morning in Geelong (Victoria), the Swiss Fabian Cancellara won the time trial of the World Championships for the 4th time in 5 years.

Seen as the big favourite, Spartacus did the 45.6 kilometers of the circuit including two steep climbs in less than one hour, 58'09", and with an average speed of 47.048 km/h (against 51.6 km/h for his victory in Mendrisio last year). He thus becomes the first rider to have won 4 rainbow jerseys!

Spartacus' performance

As the current world champion, Fabian Cancellara was the last rider to start at 8.18AM CET (4.18PM local time). At the first intermediate timing point (after 6.6 kilometers), he was 6 seconds behind David Millar who finished 2nd at more than one minute behind the Swiss rider.

This didn't frighten the time trial specialist Cancellara however because right from the second timing point, the Swiss champion was faster than the British rider and when he crossed the finish line, he even took the time (like last year) to raise his hand and show 4 fingers as to underline the fact that this was his 4th victory! (after 2006, 2007 and 2009)
In order to win today's race, Cancellara especially used his good descending skills and even though he almost ran into the barriers in the second round on the circuit, this allowed him to gain some precious time.

David Millar rode a quite regular time trial and finished second at 1'02"75 behind the Swiss rider with an average speed of 46.216 km/h. The British rider thus stays ahead of the two other favourites, the German Tony Martin (+1'12"49 / 46,09 km/h) and the Australian Richie Porte (+1'19" / 46,006 km/h).

Even though he was behind David Millar at all timing points, Tony Martin could potentially have beaten the British rider ... if only he didn't get this flat front tyre!

Commenting after the race, Richie Porte declared to be happy with his fourth place, especially underlining the fact that this is only his first year as a pro.

The deception Gustav Larsson
Gustav Larsson, also seen as one of the favourites of this race, shows a result which is quite disappointing by finishing 10th at 3'01"02 from Cancellara. The Swedish rider, who won the time trial of the 2010 Tour du Limousin and thus created the foundation of his overall victory in this stage race, but also the time trial of the Giro d'Italia 2010 and the national championships of his country, just like Martin got a flat tyre. Going from the 15th intermediate time at the first timing point to 8th at the second, Gustav Larsson fell back to the 13th place at the next point because of a flat tyre after 19 kilometers. Larsson said about this: It's always difficult to get back riding again. You loose the rhythm and precious time. But I didn't ride fast enough anyway, I'm disappointed of my performance. I hope to be able to do better.

The images of Fabian Cancellara's victory and his post race interview (video)

In the video below you can see Fabian Cancellara crossing the finish line and his post race interview in which he says: I'm very happy. I write history today by winning the time trial for the fourth time, that's great. This was probably the most difficult one because I was not sure of my condition but I think I managed the race quite well with a good tactical approach.
I didn't touch the barriers but every second counts so I wanted to pass as close as possible without taking the risk to fall.
For now I don't think about Sunday's race yet. I'll first celebrate this victory. It's not like last year when I had the pressure of riding at home. I'll start thinking about Sunday tomorrow but without as much pressure as last year ... others will have that pressure this year!

And he's of course thinking of the current World Champion, Cadel Evans, who races at home this year ...

The top 10 of the time trial at the 2010 World Championships road cycling

The top 10 of this race is as follows:

1/ Fabian Cancellara (SUI) - 58'09"19 (47.048 km/h)
2/ David Millar (GBR) - +1'02"75 (46.216 km/h)
3/ Tony Martin (GER) - +1'12"49 (46.090 km/h)
4/ Richie Porte (AUS) - +1'19"00 (46.006 km/h)
5/ Michael Rogers (AUS) - +2'24"94 (45.171 km/h)
6/ Koos Moerenhout (NED) - +2'40"69 (44.976 km/h)
7/ Luis Léon Sanchez (ESP) - +2'44"23 (44.933 km/h)
8/ David Zabriskie (USA) - +2'51"41 (44.845 km/h)
9/ Maciej Bodnar (POL) - +3'00"70 (44.731 km/h)
10/ Gustav Larsson (SWE) - +3'01"02 (44.727 km/h)

> Click here to see the complete list of results

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: World Championships Melbourne 2010 | Cycling general (except Tour de France)

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