Report: Men’s Time Trial – Wiggins!

A 1-3 for Great Britain as Wiggins wins the Gold whilst Chris Froome takes the Bronze. Tony Martin is second.

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The fairy-tale continued for British cycling and Bradley Wiggins as the Tour de France winner added to a long list of great victories in 2012 the Olympic title, his seventh Olympic medal. Wiggins was in a class of his own for the 44 kilometre race against the watch as he put almost a minute into the world champion Tony Martin who the year before had been dealing out the beating to Wiggins.

Unbeaten in time trials this year, prologues aside, Wiggins was simply superb on the bike, his legs pushing the o’symetric chain rings around at a constant speed, not to fast, not to slow and with little body movement. From above, he didn’t look fast at all but the time checks said it all as he was the only rider under 51 minutes at the finish.

Wiggo giving it his all and then some… Photo: Rob Lampard (Velostar)

Wiggins though didn’t have all the limelight to himself though as Chris Froome rode his heart out to finish third, denying young USA rider Taylor Phinney a medal.

Fabian Cancellera meanwhile finished in 7th, losing more and more time as the race went on and seeing him clutching his shoulder after the race in pain, it was clear the crash in the road race denied him any chance of challenging Wiggins. Certainly had the Swiss machine been 100 per cent, the race between him and Wiggins would have been one of the classic battles of all time. It wasn’t to be though.

The first time check after only seven kilometres gave a hint of what was to come with Martin leading but the next one at 18k showed just who the contenders were going to be. Racing through crowds unseen in London since the Tour of Britain prologue and the Tour of Britain last year, Bradley Wiggins, riding a Sports Institute bike not his normal team bike, was up on Martin while Froome, on his team bike, had almost a minute buffer on Cancellera.

Photo: Rob Lampard (Velostar)

Whilst the likes of Michael Rogers of Australia , Marco Pinotti of Italy and Taylor Phinney (USA) were putting up a strong showing, the middle and later time checks showed that the medals were going to be between the two Brits, a German and the Swiss machine, Cancellera.

The latter however dropped away over the closing stages, finishing 7th while Phinney came back well over the final section of the course to finish less than a minute behind Froome. The win though was always going to be Wiggins.

Just like he had in the Tour de France, his pace stayed high and the endurance gained from that Tour de France held him in good stead as he powered all the way to the line, the Mod symbol on his helmet and bike pride of place as the crowd roared long and loud as he crossed the line.

Chris Froome. Photo: Rob Lampard (Velostar)

Wiggins though didn’t appear to be ready to acknowledge the victory. He waited, and it was a long wait, for Cancellera to cross the line and sure enough, as soon as the victory was confirmed, Wiggins raised his arms to the crowd. He was the Olympic champion for the third Olympiad in a row after his two Golds in the Pursuit.

Wiggo then went on a little ride, looking for his wife Cath and two children. They eventually found each other and it was then onto the podium where Wiggins received his seventh Olympic medal, one less gold than Sir Steve Redgrave but one more overall than the legendary rower.

Wiggins had arrived at home in London. He’d forgone the option of riding the track and instead went for gold on the road and whilst it didn’t work out in the road race for his friend Cavendish, Wiggins won the race of truth to show just how well calculated that decision was.  Next stop Rio as he hinted at in his post race interview… “I can’t put it into words, it wouldn’t do it justice. It was incredible.”

“To win an Olympic Gold in your own city in the Velodrome or whatever, with three or four thousand people cheering you on would have been incredible but to do it round these streets is just phenomenal.”

“Going through Kingston at the end, the noise was amazing and I don’t think my sporting career will ever top that. What a month it has been. I won the Tour de France and the time-trial at the London Olympic Games, it is never going to get better than that.”

“It had to be gold today or nothing. What’s the point of seven medals if they’re not the right colour? Mainly it’s about the four golds. Now I have to go to Rio and go for five.”

The race had its sub plots too. Luis Leon Sanchez (Spain), a rider expected to do well, had a nightmare. A chain break as he left the start house was bad enough but then a puncture as well to add to the time lost and it was no surprise he cruised in way down in 32nd place. For former Endura Racing rider, Jack Bauer, he finished 19th, managing to keep it up right despite a near miss on a corner.

What with the huge huge crowds, the win by Wiggins and 3rd to Froome, the disappointment of the women’s race was all forgotten and cycling was back in the spotlight again.

Tony Martin, second to Bradley Wiggins.  Photo: Rob Lampard (Velostar)

 

Fabian Cancellera struggles with a shoulder injury and fades away from a medal challenge in the final section of the time trial whilst Taylor Phinney (right) holds on for a very strong fourth place. Photo: Rob Lampard (Velostar)

Results

1 WIGGINS Bradley 50:39.54
2 MARTIN Tony 51:21.54
3 FROOME Christopher 51:47.87
4 PHINNEY Taylor 52:38.07
5 PINOTTI Marco 52:49.28
6 ROGERS Michael 52:51.39
7 CANCELLARA Fabian 52:53.71
8 GRABSCH Bert 53:18.04
9 CASTROVIEJO NICOLAS Jonathan 53:29.36
10 BRAJKOVIC Janez 54:09.72
11 WESTRA Lieuwe 54:19.62
12 KIRYIENKA Vasil 54:30.29
13 BOASSON HAGEN Edvald 54:30.87
14 BAK Lars Ytting 54:33.21
15 FUGLSANG Jakob 54:34.49
16 LARSSON Gustav 54:35.26
17 GILBERT Philippe 54:39.98
18 OLIVEIRA Nelson Filipe S. Simoes 54:41.57
19 BAUER Jack 54:54.16
20 MENCHOV Denis 54:59.26
21 NAVARDAUSKAS Ramunas 55:12.32
22 BOOM Lars 55:29.74
23 VINOKUROV Alexandr 55:37.05
24 BEPPU Fumiyuki 55:40.64
25 BODNAR Maciej 55:49.67
26 NAZARET Magno Prado 55:50.77
27 McCANN David 56:03.77
28 HESJEDAL Ryder 56:06.18
29 CHAVANEL Sylvain 56:07.67
30 ALBASINI Michael 56:38.38
31 BAZAYEV Assan 56:40.77
32 SANCHEZ GIL Luis Leon 56:59.16
33 GIL MARTINEZ Tomas Aurelio 57:05.12
34 LAHSAINI Mouhcine 57:25.24
35 DUARTE AREVALO Fabio Andres 57:34.20
36 Republic of Iran HAGHI Alireza 57:41.44
37 AKDILEK Ahmet 59:11.19

 

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