The new world champion (Image credit: Luc Claessen)
Big win for Cance
Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara rode to victory in the elite men's time trial today in Salzburg, smashing the field with a stunning 1:00:11.75 (50.664 km/h) on the hilly parcours. Cancellara had the best splits at every time check, and relegated David Zabriskie (USA) to second place by 1'30, while Alexandre Vinokourov (Kazakhstan) finished third at 1'49. It was Cancellara's first gold medal at the elite world championship level, even though he's had past successes in this discipline as a junior and an U23.
The race was held in excellent conditions over a testing 50.83 km parcours. Brian Vandborg (Denmark) was the early leader with a 1:02:04, and stayed in the hotseat for a long time before David Zabriskie (CSC) flew home in 1:01:41. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kazakhstan) suffered a slight mishap when his chain fell off on the first climb, but rode well to come in 20 seconds behind Zabriskie. But finally, with triple defending champion Michael Rogers (Australia) off the pace all day, it was Cancellara with a superior ride coming home to beat Zabriskie by almost a minute and a half, pushing Vinokourov to the bronze position and Vandborg to fourth. And even though the world championships are run with national teams instead of trade teams, the top ProTour team CSC could still claim three of the top four riders today.
