After a beautifully paced ride where Brad Wiggins upped the pace in the finale, the British rider beat the multiple world TT champion Fabian Cancellara to the Silver. Winner in a class of his own was Germany’s Tony Martin.
On a technically challenging course that stayed pretty dry for the duration of the race, Tony Martin of Germany continued his run of great form in Time Trials this year when he was suitably crowned Time Trial Champion of the World in Copenhagen.
Fastest at all the time checks, Martin was simply in a class of his own, winning the 46.4 kilometre race against the watch at an average speed of almost 52 kilometres per hour with a winning margin over Bradley Wiggins of a minute fifteen. While the race for Gold was always Martin’s on his own, the race for the medals was much closer and it was Wiggins who paced himself best, almost five seconds quicker than Cancellara.
The British rider began well, fifth fastest while Cancellara was busy in his dual with Martin and was second at the first time check. It was the German who was handling the pressure best however as Cancellara over cooked it on many a corner and started to lose time to the German and the gap between him and Wiggins got closer and closer.
With Wiggins going faster and faster as the race went on, Cancellara was getting very ragged and into the final few kilometres, the Swiss rider came to a standstill as he almost crashes on one of the many corners. That mistake alone probably cost him the Silver medal as Wiggins repeated David Millar’s Silver medal ride from 2010 where Cancellara had won the Gold for the fourth time, a record in the event.
Post Race Comments
Post race, Wiggins said “I didn’t really expect anything to be honest. I just went out and did my ride. I did not even have my radio on but I knew that I was doing a good ride.”
“You always hope that on a good day, you can get a medal or even win the race, but it needed something special to beat Tony today. I have been feeling better and better after the crash in July and am in great shape after the Vuelta. I actually only found out after changing in the bus about my position.”
“Today the course was fantastic, it was a great ride. It was hard to see that on the course when I tried riding it the other day but today it really looked and felt like a World Championship or like a city prologue. I chose to ride without a radio as I find it distracting and irrelevant for a one hour ride. We had a plan to chose a particular power to for the first lap and then to see if we could raise that in the second half.”
“It went perfect and I think that I got the best out of the hour. To know whether you then are up or down on the other riders should not make any difference on how you can respond really. Furthermore, you have to have a lot of confidence in the person giving you the information as I have experienced a couple of times this year having someone lying to me from the car to make me feel better.”
New World Champion Tony Martin explained “It was very important for me to come into the race and to get into a good rhythm in the race. After 1-2 km, I could feel that I had perfect legs. I had found a good position, the speed was high and this feeling motivated me a lot. After the first splits, I felt even more confident, I could feel that it was my day.”
“I was pretty sure that I would win with 3-4 kms to go as I was 50 seconds ahead and not getting tired, then I felt confident that I would be World Champion.”
“On one side, I have gotten much stronger in the head. I know now how to make a perfect time trial, how to find the rhythm and to manage the start and to get into the race really quick. On the other side, I think that I have now found the perfect way to prepare for one-day time trials, with the Vuelta just as a preparation for the Worlds.”
“It was not about taking the rainbow jersey from Fabian, it’s not all about the fight between me and Fabian. There are a lot of other good guys, Bradley, David Millar. I am just happy to have the jersey and I feel sorry for Fabian with all the pressure put on him from his country. Third place is also a good place too, I know it as I did it the last two years! I think that it is a good result for both of us.”
“The course was pretty flat,” said Martin to his HTC team’s press office, “I normally would prefer a few climbs, but I was able to find a good rhythm and really push myself at every opportunity to accelerate. It was cloudy, looking like it could rain at any moment, but we were lucky the road stayed dry and I could hit the corners faster.”
“I was able to catch up to David Millar (GB) which was motivating, but my morale going into the race today was quite high. I felt great from the start.”
The outgoing champion, Fabian Cancellara, said of Martin’s victory “Tony deserved to win today more than anyone else. I started with good feelings but could not find the rhythm and I felt that this was not the day where I could give everything. Maybe that cracked me a bit, feeling that I was just not 100% where I should have been.”
“Before the race, at the Vuelta and while training at home, I had felt very good and had good sensations, but today was another day and the result is as it is. I lost milliseconds of concentration and almost crashed into the barriers by the Royal Palace, these things happen when you are riding at 100% and I am just happy that I did not lose anything. Sure it was painful, but that was not why I did not win the race.”
Last years Silver medallist, David Millar, was unable to repeat his ride of 2010, finishing in 7th place, two minutes fourty five down on Martin who had caught Millar on his ride to the rainbow jersey. On Twitter afterwards, Millar remarked, “Shit that was hard. Very happy for Tony Martin and Brad Wiggins, they both deserve that, they truly are the two best in the world currently.”
There was more British interest in the race with Endura Racing having two riders racing, Jack Bauer finishing 19th, a few tenths down on his New Zealand compatriot Jesse Sergent. Endura’s other rider, Alex Wetterhall of Sweden was 37th. Liverpool’s Matt Brammeier riding for Ireland, did not finish due to illness.
Result
1. MARTIN Tony GER 53:43Â (51.813kph)
2. WIGGINS Bradley GBR 54:59 @1:15.83 (50.623 kph)
3. CANCELLARA Fabian SUI 55:04 @ 1:20.59 (50.550kph)
4. GRABSCH Bert GER 55:15 @1:31.76 (50.379 kph)
5. BOBRIDGE Jack AUS 55:57 @2:13 (49.748 kph)
6. PORTE Richie AUSÂ 56:13 @2:29 (49.516 kph)
7. MILLAR David GBRÂ 56:29 @2:45 (49.282 kph)
8 WESTRA Lieuwe NED 57:02 @3:18.52 (48.808 kph)
9 DYACHENKO Alexandr KAZ 57:03 @3:19.76 (48.790 kph)
10 FUGLSANG Jakob DEN 57:14 @3:30.59 (48.636 kph)
19. BAUER Jack NZL 58:10 @4:26 (47.850 kph)
37. WETTERHALL Alexander SWE 59:18 @5:35.10 (46.935 kph)
