Durbridge powers to lead after time trial

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Australian champion Luke Durbridge (GreenEdge) claimed his first victory as a professional in Europe with the 6.8km time trial of the Circuit de la Sarthe-Pays de la Loire in front of Angers' medieval castle. He rode the fastest time, eight seconds ahead of Italy's Manuele Boaro (Saxo Bank) and Portuguese ITT champion Nelson Oliveira (RadioShack-Nissan), despite the bad feeling of a sore left knee.

"I switched off the pain during the time trial," said the 20-year-old from Perth who didn't beat the time of last year's winner on the same course, Daniele Bennati (8:13). The main surprise came from the Garmin-Barracuda team. None of their specialists met the expectation and David Zabriskie rode twenty second slower than one year before.

"I came to the Circuit de la Sarthe with good form," Durbridge told Cyclingnews after the race. "But I didn't expect to win. I have a sore knee. This morning I thought of pulling out of the race. I'm glad I didn't because now I'm the winner of the time trial. I'm very happy. This is my first win [after the Australian national championship for time trial]. Coming off the track, a quite short time trial like this one was perfect for me. The light uphill to start with made it good for a powerful rider."

In between the stages at the Circuit de la Sarthe-Pays de la Loire, Durbridge was looking at the news from Melbourne about the team pursuit for which he was a defending champion at the world championship. He opted for a road program after he realized that the new style of racing a 4-man 4km event wasn't exactly suitable for him.

"If it was 6 or 8 kilometres, I'd be the man but when the first kilo is ridden in 1:02, it's not for me," he said. "After the London world cup, the selectors clarified to me that I was in the team for training but with not much future in the final quartet, so I came back to a road program. The Three Days of De Panne were my first race since the Tour Down Under. It was a bit of a shock but the main thing is: my left Achilles was painful, it made me pedal in a funny style to reduce the pain and that caused the tendonitis I now feel on my knee."

"Turbo durbo" was down after the morning stage but his afternoon triumph brought a smile back on his face. "I'm happy to continue the good campaign of GreenEdge," he said in reference to the 1-2 at the Vuelta al Pais Vasco by Daryl Impey and Allan Davis. With the yellow jersey on his shoulder, he'll carry on no matter what. "I know that tomorrow is the hardest stage," he continued. "Unfortunately we're only three guys left in the team as two [Matt Wilson and Brett Lancaster] pulled out this morning due to a stomach virus. It's going to be hard to control but we'll see how it goes."

Durbridge apologized to the French media for not speaking their language. This is his second visit only to the country of the Tour de France. His last visit was for the Chrono Champenois that he won last year in his final preparation for the successful U23 time trial world championship he won in Denmark. It's now clear that he won't contest any track event at the Olympic Games but he keeps his fingers crossed for representing Australia in the individual time trial in London.

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