Another sunny, bright day in Tuscany as the world best’s time trialists will fight against the clock and against each other, in the quest for Gold, Silver and Bronze. Though there are some slightly weird selection too like Riquelme or Kakhi, who seem to be taken away the place from real TT talent, the startlist is certainly a who’s who of time trial quality.
Czech rider Leopold König is one of the first on the road. He shares the current best time at the first intermediate with Rein Taaramee. For the Czech, this is a worthy nomination after a long, successful season. It will be interesting if he stays with NetApp Endura for next season.
None has even reached the finish yet and Olymic Gold Medalist Bradley Wiggins is already on his way to Firenze. The same goes for Tejay Van Garderen. Both will surely look for a podium spot today and should be on top of things for a while now.
Hardly surprising, Van Garderen puts in a great ride so far and takes current best time from Westra. Wiggins is about to come, so that may change. But the uphill climb might favor the American more than his british opponent.
With Thomas Schwabe having passed Checkpoint Numero Uno, we can take a look at the times here of the first of three rounds. Wiggins set an impressive time already and looks certain for contention in the medal ranks. Meanwhile Van Garderen and Westra have already some gap. Good times by Porte, Pinotti, Roy and König are mentionable in this first part of the race. Daniel Martin is meanwhile way down, only Sagan’s brother is worse than him at this point.
Some great riders in the second batch, amongst them Tom Dumoulin. The Dutch is promised to be one of the best Time Trialists in coming years but he has not quite that level yet. His countryman Westra did a great job so far, being up ahead in contention against Van Garderen at both checkpoints so far.
Wiggins storms the hill meanwhile. He is in fantastic shape today. At Checkpoint 3 it will be more than a minute lead to Van Garderen and Westra. Of course, Sir Bradley Wiggins ultimately sets a stunning new time than in Firenze. Flawless ride by him? We will have to wait for Martin & Co. to be certain of that, but we know that Wiggins will surely stay some time now in the hot seat in front of the camera.
Great ride by Giro winner Nibali, who will look for some late racing kilometers for the Road Race. After a busy season with Giro and Tour, the Italian will want some late prestige with a possible gold medal here. He already got bronze with his Astana Team in the Team Time Trial though. A solid ride keeps him in the Top 10.
Bulldog Talansky enjoyed a great first part in this race, keeping himself still in the Top 5 at the first checkpoint. However since then he faltered a bit, getting caught by Pinotti at the second checkpoint. Still the American is in contention for a Top 10 here today, probably much to the pleasing of his manager.
Fantastic stuff by Castroviejo. He didn’t win the Spanish National Championships but he shows today that he must be Spain’s best current Time Trialist. The Basque is the closest to Wiggins yet at checkpoint number one, even beating Van Garderen’s time. 24 seconds onto Wiggins is quite a number already though, but a solid Top 10 must be more than welcome for the team.
We keep an eye on Checkpoint Two, where the second batch of riders just got through. The last one was Josef Hintermüller, who just keeps himself in the Top2 5 for now. Checkpoint 2 saw the establishment of Wiggins’ extreme lead towards Van Garderen and the rest of the riders. Westra, Porte and Pinotti complete the Top 5 with great performances. Dowsett may be bit disappointing to be behind Talansky at this point. Peraud and Roy do the tricoloure proud, seems like another very good Team performance from France. Tom Dumoulin outside of Top 10 at Checkpoint 2 is surprising to say the least! Same goes for Belgian National Champion Vandewalle, proving that the classic nation number one still has a lot of ground to cover in the Time Trial discipline.
One last time in the World Champion jersey or is it just another round? Tony Martin is the last rider to head out of the starting ramp onto the road, ready to show the world his gaping wide open mouth.
Stunning ride by Chavanel, continuing the well performing trend of France. 15 seconds down on Wiggins at Checkpoint #1. He has developed himself into a great time trialist over the years and can primarily look on what collection of national jerseys. Maybe he’ll be able to add another jersey at the end of the day to it?
U23 World Champion Po-Ding Kim has the honours again today. Crazy recovery right there. Especially since he is riding for a medal too. 9 seconds down on Wiggins certainly is a worthy performance of the U23 World Champion so far. Taylor Phinney and Rohan Dennis meanwhile get 4th and 5th at the first checkpoint.
There you go, Cance! The Swiss is on his way and has the equal time as Wiggins. This may turn into a close battle between those two greats.
After Froome getting third now, Tony Martin settles things for now by making a new best time. 9 seconds ahead of Wiggins and Cancellara and everything’s seems to be in control for him.
Probably no Top 10 for Kelderman today as he is 14th at Checkpoint 1. At Checkpoint 2 he is quite down on his competition. He may save a face on the climb uphill, but so far Lieuwe Westra still ranks the best dutch rider. At Checkpoint 2, Westra is still 4th.
Great ride by Kwiatowski. The young polish supertalent hasn’t had the best first part, but so far his second part has been tremendous. Now as he heads up to Checkpoint 3, he is in fight for a Top 10 in total. It’ll be close though.
Disappointing ride by Malori here in Tuscany. Probably the greatest current Italian talent in this discipline, he only is 18th at the first checkpoint in the end and hasn’t significantly improven in his performance in the following kilometers. A day to forget for him, who surely had Top 10 aspirations in his home country.
Phinney with a solid performance, he keeps himself just ahead of Rohan Dennis at the second checkpoint too. However, he can’t overcome Chavanel and will probably have to settle for a place outside of Top 5. For now, he’s 3rd though, 39 seconds down.
Holy smokes, this is crazy. Cancellara is AGAIN time equal with Bradley Wiggins. This time the Briton is just a few miliseconds ahead. This will decided in the climb AND the downhill into Firenze. Every turn counts up until the Nelson Mandela forum! Chris Froome is meanwhile “already” 10 seconds down on those two.
Whilst the fight for the two podium spots is close as possible, Tony Martin is ahead of the competition today by far. 19 seconds onto his two big rivals leaves little speculation for the finish. Chris Froome and Po-Ding Kim look to complete the Top 5 and due to their superior climbing they may even have a shot at the medals too! Chavanel, Phinney, Dennis, Castroviejo and Van Garderen complete the Top 10 at Checkpoint Two. Many well established names follow down the ladder with NetApp Endura rider, Jan Barta, being the last seen name on the page.
Thomas De Gendt finishes the race there. 10th for now, it will change. But a decent performance by the Vacansoleil rider.
Rohan Dennis will look for a satisfying Top 10 result here today as he heads up the last few meters to the Time Checkpoint. No crashes in the descent, however there’s no need to wait up. Dennis has lost time onto Van Garderen and Kwiatkowski. Whilst the American is even ahead of him, the young polish rider has significantly caught up. He may even catch the Aussie’s time in the descent then. Same goes for Phinney, who’s too heavy for this climb and got caught by Kwiatkowski.
It’s the fight that intrigues the most probably. Cancellara versus Wiggins here today. But the Swiss looks like he lost too much time here. 6 seconds down on Wiggins and what to expect of Froome when you look at Kwiatkowski’s comeback ride up the hill.
From Wiggins to Froome with Love! Cancellara not only has to fight for silver and risk what’s he got in the downhill, no – he also needs to fight for every second now as Froome is merely 3 seconds away from him! We see here Froome, heading in the tricky downhill part to Firenze. Tony Martin is up next and he has lost time to Wiggins too! 13 seconds lead must still be enough to beat the Briton!
With Svein Tuft finishing, we take a look at the recent standings. A mostly disappointing ride by the Canadian Record Champion. 23th place, more must have been expected.
Ahead of Dennis’ ride into Firenze, we take a look at the classifications for now. Wiggins is still ahead but it’s worth pointing out the ride that Chavanel made. Stunning, especially since he invested his efforts in a smart manner. Castroviejo just kept himself ahead of Van Garderen and Kwiatkowski who are both time equal. All three of them can be happy with their ride here today we think. Westra, Porte, Talansky and Kelderman will probably leave the Top 10 in the next few minutes. Worth pointing out Rui Costa who must have done a fantastic sprint uphill, as he improved quite much and overtook names such as Kelderman and Talansky.
There’s Phinney coming, will it be enough for a Top 10? He ranks 7th when he crosses the line, behind Van Garderen, Kwiatkowski and Castroviejo. Well, he certainly must have planned better. It won’t be enough.
Po-Ding Kim finishes next, 2nd. Beating Chavanel there. But all eyes are on Cancellara as he rushes out of Firenze after a furious downhill! You can really see his pace. Commentators next door called it art, how he took each turn. The swiss 4 time national champion hurrys down the last few tricky parts. He lost time to Sir Bradley Wiggins in the uphill, but Wiggins is a notorious weak descender. So does it come as a surprise what follows next? Cancellara sets new best time! 1h04’13’’! What an extraordinary finish by him!
Froome follows then. A solid ride from the Double winner this season. He’s overpowered alright but he brings in the goods here, by coming in 3rd. He lost the most time in the first part, since then his times have been improving. 8 seconds down on Cancellara. He took got a beating there in the downhill.
And then there’s the old World Champion coming, heading into the Forum. He has set the best times at every checkpoint, it should be enough for the final line too. He clutches his fist, knowing he did some hundred meters away from the line. New best time. A new gold medal. A new rainbow jersey. The new World Champion is Tony Martin!
Those Germans! Tony Martin takes Gold once again and gets to keep his rainbow jersey. Germany with a gold medal now ranks equal to North Korea, yet the Germans may have good cards for additional medals in the U23 Road Race in the form of Schröder. Cancellara takes the medal for Switzerland, as called probably the only chance for them. Meanwhile, Great Britain continues its run of hoarding medals, taking the third medal in the third competition. With Adrien Hanzen obviously being a top favourite in the upcoming U23 Road Race, this score can only increase further from here on out.
Froome and Po-Ding Kim complete the Top 5. Especially the North Korean has significantly improved on his time compared to the U23 TT. Has he been riding half-assed there or what? Stunning none the less what the North Korean delivers here in his third race. Sylvain Chavanel is the last rider to have kept his time margin under a minute. With a big gap then, Rohan Dennis, Castroviejo, Van Garderen and Kwiatkowski follow. Especially Kwiatkowski made a great run uphill, probably delivering one of the fastest time up to Crono #3.
Taylor Phinney takes brewers’ obligatory 11th place, whilst Italy display a non-showcase in the form of Malori and Nibali finishing outside Top 15. Riquelme and Kakhi are way down in the classification and certainly their starting slot could have been used more effectively.
Men's Time Trial World Championships, Results
Rank
Name
Team
Time
Tony Martin
Germany
1h03'58
Fabian Cancellara
Switzerland
+ 15
Bradley Wiggins
Great Britain
+ 18
4
Chris Froome
Great Britain
+ 24
5
Po-ding Kim
North Korea
+ 37
6
Sylvain Chavanel
France
+ 44
7
Rohan Dennis
Australia
+ 1'21
8
Jonathan Castroviejo
Spain
+ 1'22
9
Tejay Van Garderen
USA
s.t.
10
Michał Kwiatkowski
Poland
+ 1'23
Spoiler
11
Taylor Phinney
USA
+ 1'24
12
Lieuwe Westra
Netherlands
+ 1'29
13
Richie Porte
Australia
+ 1'46
14
Rui Costa
Portugal
+ 1'49
15
Wilco Kelderman
Netherlands
+ 1'50
16
Andrew Talansky
USA
s.t.
17
Vincenzo Nibali
Italy
+ 1'52
18
Edvald Boasson Hagen
Norway
+ 1'55
19
Tanel Kangert
Estonia
+ 1'56
20
Thomas De Gendt
Belgium
+ 1'57
21
Adriano Malori
Italy
+ 2'00
22
Jean-Christophe Peraud
France
+ 2'02
23
Marco Pinotti
Italy
+ 2'09
24
Jan Barta
Czech Republic
+ 2'12
25
Nicolas Roche
Ireland
+ 2'13
26
Janez Brajkovič
Slovenia
s.t.
27
Leopold König
Czech Republic
+ 2'14
28
Ion Izagirre
Spain
s.t.
29
Svein Tuft
Canada
+ 2'15
30
Tom Dumoulin
Netherlands
+ 2'18
31
Jérémy Roy
France
+ 2'20
32
Rein Taaramäe
Estonia
+ 2'23
33
Simon Spilak
Slovenia
+ 2'25
34
Alex Dowsett
Great Britain
+ 2'27
35
Alejandro Valverde
Spain
+ 2'30
36
Lars Ytting Bak
Denmark
s.t.
37
Roman Kreuziger
Czech Republic
+ 2'37
38
Maciej Bodnar
Poland
+ 2'39
39
Peter Velits
Slovakia
+ 2'42
40
Kristof Vandewalle
Belgium
+ 2'43
41
Rigoberto Urán
Columbia
+ 2'46
42
Peter Sagan
Slovakia
s.t.
43
Maxime Monfort
Belgium
+ 2'48
44
Jakob Fuglsang
Denmark
+ 2'49
45
Cameron Meyer
Australia
s.t.
46
Ryder Hesjedal
Canada
+ 2'52
47
Josef Hintermuller
Germany
+ 3'02
48
Thomas Schwabe
Germany
+ 3'03
49
Tiago Machado
Portugal
+ 3'05
50
Sergio Henao
Columbia
+ 3'09
51
Nairo Quintana
Columbia
+ 3'10
52
Alexander Kristoff
Norway
+ 3'13
53
Kristjan Koren
Slovenia
+ 3'16
54
Martin Elmiger
Switzerland
+ 3'32
55
Nelson Oliveira
Portugal
+ 3'33
56
Michael Schär
Switzerland
+ 3'43
57
Rafal Majka
Poland
+ 3'53
58
Christian Meier
Canada
+ 4'02
59
Daniel Martin
Ireland
+ 4'20
60
Lars Petter Nordhaug
Norway
+ 4'21
61
Philip Deignan
Ireland
+ 4'30
62
Gert Joeaar
Estonia
+ 5'12
63
Juraj Sagan
Slovakia
+ 5'32
64
Rajesh Kakhi
India
+ 5'37
65
Jorge Cristobal Riquelme
Chile
+ 6'01
66
Patrick Bosman
Tirol Cycling Team
+ 7'09
Congratulations to Tony Martin, Fabian Cancellara and Sir Bradley Wiggins once more. They make for an all too known line-up of faces we’ve come to appreciate on the podium in a very close, exciting race.
Next up Preview for the Road Races!
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
The favourite takes it for the third time in a row, hoping for a bit more variation in the road races. Kim did great, but he'll need extra firepower if he wants to win next year. And as national coach, I'm happy with De Gendt's top 20.
As Spanish coach I should be happy with a top 10 I guess. Not really built for the TT's...
As Euskaltel-trainer I'm happy that Ion didn't make a fool of himself and wasn't even the worst "Spaniard". Not to mention the fact that two Basques both beat the current Spanish TT-champion
Chavanel with a really strong ride for the French team. Overall it was lot closer than i was expecting even if the positions weren't surprising. Another great report now for the main events...
I like the results. Tony Martin with a "shock win", Castroviejo inside the top ten and no Kenyan on the podium
Costa as well with a decent performance.
Of course I said, this would be our only chance for a medal, but after that performance, Cancellara could also go for some action in the RR.. I wouldn't count him out
I've been really surprised by him, didn't think he would make the podium really.
And it was a great report shonak, I'm really loving those..
Good report, though it's the Road Races that Interest me the most xD
Just take Tschopp out.
