In one of the hardest fought battles in recent history for the elite men’s World Time Trial Title, Germany’s Tony Martin outpowered America’s Taylor Phinney for a repeat victory by a mere six seconds. Vasil Kiryenka of Byelorussia claimed the bronze.
Unlike in Copenhagen, where Martin was clearly in a class of his own and finished 1 minute and 15 seconds ahead of Britain’s Bradley Wiggins, this time the German star had to fight tooth and nail to repeat his World Champion’s title.
Phinney, already an Under-23 World Time Trial Champion in Geelong two years ago, dropped as far as 13 seconds behind Martin in the middle section of the 43.6 kilometre rolling course, but then clawed his way back into contention as he stormed up the third climb of the day, the Cauberg.
A gold medallist as part of the World Team Time Trial Championships last Sunday, and the winner of his national championships earlier this year, Martin just managed to stay ahead. Yet it was so close, to the point where the 27-year-old was four seconds slower than Phinney at the first checkpoint. But with Kazakhstan’s Dimitriy Gruzdev, the third fastest, a further eleven seconds back, it was looking clear that the battle for gold was going to be a two-way affair.
Yet even if the rolling, technical course was not Martin’s favourite type of terrain, the German was never going to give up easily. Pounding past Spain’s Alberto Contador, who had started two minutes before him, even before he reached the 30 kilometres mark, Martin regained ground on Phinney by the second checkpoint to clock the fastest time by 13 seconds.
Neither rider seemed capable of gaining the upper hand, as Phinney then closed the gap on Martin in the final segment of the course. Nine seconds slower with five kilometres left to race, he then squeezed the gap to two thirds of that by the finish line.
However, Martin’s huge smile of triumph as he crossed the line and waving of two fingers at the tv cameras showed that the German knew he had clinched a second title in as many years. He had warned, pre-race, that defending the title would be tough, and he was right.
“The final was one of the hardest of my careers, I had to go 110 percent to be able to get this gold” Martin said. “It’s been a season with a lot of ups and downs, the worst thing was when I had a car accident in April and then broke my hand in the Tour.”
“It was pretty hard to get ready for the Olympics, but I got silver and that gave me a lot of morale. With the Vuelta, this is the first race that I could go with 100 percent top condition which is why I wanted to go full on here, to show what I could do.”
For his part, Phinney said: “There have been a lot of near-misses for me this season, but if you told me this morning I was going to get silver, I’d have been so excited.”
“To lose by so little, I must have looked angry in some of the photos of the podium. But I’ve got to be realistic, to be so close to such a great champion like Martin, I have to be happy.”
Competition resumes on Friday with the junior women’s road-race – 65 kilometres long and, like almost all the courses in this part of the world, both hilly and technical. Last year’s champion, Lucy Garner of Great Britain, will once more be taking part.
Results
1 1 MARTIN Tony GER 19:22.73 (2) 38:40.59 (1) 48:56.02 (1) 58:38.76 +0.00 46.755
2 3 PHINNEY Taylor USA 19:18.36 (1) 38:53.85 (2) 49:04.68 (2) 58:44.13 +5.37 46.683
3 28 KIRYIENKA Vasil BLR 19:42.00 (4) 39:35.57 (4) 50:18.52 (4) 1:00:23.75 +1:44.99 45.400
4 6 VAN GARDEREN Tejay USA 19:42.76 (5) 39:49.41 (6) 50:29.34 (5) 1:00:28.13 +1:49.37 45.345
5 4 KESSIAKOFF Fredrik Carl Wilhelm SWE 19:54.12 (13) 40:01.73 (9) 50:36.86 (6) 1:00:29.32 +1:50.56 45.330
6 40 GRUZDEV Dmitriy KAZ 19:33.44 (3) 39:30.02 (3) 50:10.87 (3) 1:00:35.20 +1:56.44 45.257
7 27 BARTA Jan CZE 19:52.63 (10) 40:01.14 (8) 50:45.00 (7) 1:00:51.25 +2:12.49 45.058
8 31 DOWSETT Alex GBR 20:04.78 (20) 40:11.59 (11) 50:53.17 (8) 1:01:04.82 +2:26.06 44.891
9 2 CONTADOR VELASCO Alberto ESP 19:58.99 (16) 40:36.46 (17) 51:02.86 (9) 1:01:08.76 +2:30.00 44.843
10 30 MALORI Adriano ITA 19:52.95 (12) 40:11.45 (10) 51:06.74 (10) 1:01:19.30 +2:40.54 44.715
11 23 GRIVKO Andriy UKR 19:57.34 (15) 40:29.97 (15) 51:15.11 (14) 1:01:22.45 +2:43.69 44.676
12 7 TUFT Svein CAN 20:14.78 (29) 40:37.90 (18) 51:20.85 (16) 1:01:35.00 +2:56.24 44.525
13 25 KANGERT Tanel EST 20:09.96 (24) 40:28.95 (14) 51:17.02 (15) 1:01:35.89 +2:57.13 44.514
14 49 ZOIDL Riccardo AUT 19:46.14 (6) 39:59.89 (7) 51:15.03 (13) 1:01:36.03 +2:57.27 44.512
15 8 CHAVANEL Sylvain FRA 19:48.12 (7) 40:14.11 (12) 51:10.39 (11) 1:01:36.91 +2:58.15 44.502
16 16 MEYER Cameron AUS 20:15.33 (31) 40:41.73 (19) 51:27.30 (17) 1:01:38.41 +2:59.65 44.483
17 43 KOREN Kristijan SLO 19:52.29 (9) 40:22.90 (13) 51:14.49 (12) 1:01:44.05 +3:05.29 44.416
18 17 ROY Jeremy FRA 20:11.54 (25) 40:41.73 (19) 51:34.36 (19) 1:01:46.92 +3:08.16 44.381
19 13 LARSSON Gustav SWE 20:09.82 (23) 40:35.46 (16) 51:32.49 (18) 1:01:50.75 +3:11.99 44.336
20 32 DE GENDT Thomas BEL 19:56.80 (14) 40:46.31 (25) 51:38.56 (21) 1:01:54.05 +3:15.29 44.296
21 9 DURBRIDGE Luke AUS 20:12.94 (27) 40:45.37 (24) 51:38.12 (20) 1:01:56.64 +3:17.88 44.265
22 12 CASTROVIEJO NICOLAS Jonathan ESP 20:22.88 (39) 40:58.07 (30) 51:51.12 (25) 1:02:02.14 +3:23.38 44.200
23 15 SERGENT Jesse NZL 20:01.14 (18) 40:46.67 (26) 51:44.01 (22) 1:02:04.65 +3:25.89 44.170
24 18 VANDEWALLE Kristof BEL 20:19.26 (34) 41:05.21 (33) 51:59.45 (29) 1:02:14.42 +3:35.66 44.055
25 29 KELDERMAN Wilco NED 20:05.05 (21) 40:58.09 (31) 51:59.21 (28) 1:02:18.11 +3:39.35 44.011
26 38 BODNAR Maciej POL 20:00.55 (17) 40:44.02 (22) 51:51.79 (26) 1:02:24.82 +3:46.06 43.932
27 19 GRETSCH Patrick GER 20:15.28 (30) 40:59.23 (32) 52:03.20 (30) 1:02:27.54 +3:48.78 43.900
28 39 TAMOURIDIS Ioannis GRE 20:05.38 (22) 40:45.31 (23) 51:50.74 (23) 1:02:31.11 +3:52.35 43.859
29 36 FIRSANOV Sergey RUS 19:51.28 (8) 40:41.85 (21) 51:51.10 (24) 1:02:35.34 +3:56.58 43.809
30 48 JURCO Matej SVK 20:11.92 (26) 40:51.71 (27) 52:04.28 (31) 1:02:35.72 +3:56.96 43.805
31 42 BEWLEY Sam NZL 20:01.57 (19) 40:55.36 (28) 51:53.94 (27) 1:02:37.97 +3:59.21 43.778
32 55 OYARZUN Carlos CHI 20:13.61 (28) 41:06.28 (34) 52:12.35 (33) 1:02:42.19 +4:03.43 43.729
33 22 NAVARDAUSKAS Ramunas LTU 20:30.03 (44) 41:23.13 (42) 52:23.21 (36) 1:02:44.74 +4:05.98 43.700
34 14 VELITS Peter SVK 20:18.24 (33) 41:18.05 (36) 52:19.41 (35) 1:02:45.82 +4:07.06 43.687
35 33 TAARAMAE Rein EST 20:20.76 (35) 41:17.79 (35) 52:16.31 (34) 1:02:48.60 +4:09.84 43.655
36 10 GRABSCH Bert GER 20:42.98 (48) 41:36.27 (46) 52:28.00 (37) 1:02:55.61 +4:16.85 43.574
37 21 FUGLSANG Jakob DEN 20:35.43 (46) 41:21.63 (41) 52:30.78 (38) 1:02:57.13 +4:18.37 43.556
38 11 WESTRA Lieuwe NED 20:27.27 (40) 41:21.21 (39) 52:32.50 (41) 1:02:57.55 +4:18.79 43.552
39 50 THOMSON Jay Robert RSA 20:17.60 (32) 40:56.16 (29) 52:10.67 (32) 1:02:58.01 +4:19.25 43.546
40 20 BRAJKOVIC Janez SLO 20:30.01 (43) 41:19.88 (37) 52:31.97 (40) 1:02:58.58 +4:19.82 43.540
41 34 JANSE VAN RENSBURG Reinardt RSA 20:33.59 (45) 41:43.70 (48) 52:45.85 (46) 1:03:04.69 +4:25.93 43.469
42 24 DYACHENKO Alexsandr KAZ 20:21.33 (36) 41:33.98 (44) 52:40.87 (44) 1:03:10.99 +4:32.23 43.397
43 37 SMUKULIS Gatis LAT 20:29.72 (42) 41:28.61 (43) 52:35.67 (42) 1:03:14.39 +4:35.63 43.358
44 35 KONOVALOVAS Ignatas LTU 20:29.70 (41) 41:35.24 (45) 52:44.07 (45) 1:03:33.35 +4:54.59 43.143
45 45 KONONENKO Mykhaylo UKR 20:21.40 (37) 41:21.34 (40) 52:36.65 (43) 1:03:47.96 +5:09.20 42.978
46 51 HUTCHINSON Michael IRL 20:46.80 (50) 41:37.01 (47) 53:06.41 (47) 1:04:01.62 +5:22.86 42.825
47 26 GUSEV Vladimir RUS 20:52.20 (52) 41:49.52 (49) 53:22.96 (49) 1:04:13.13 +5:34.37 42.697
48 41 WACKER Eugen KGZ 20:37.53 (47) 41:56.54 (50) 53:16.73 (48) 1:04:22.21 +5:43.45 42.597
49 46 RAGONESSI Jose ECU 20:47.28 (51) 42:28.95 (52) 54:01.31 (51) 1:04:55.42 +6:16.66 42.234
50 47 SARAMOTINS Aleksejs LAT 20:43.41 (49) 42:08.82 (51) 53:57.25 (50) 1:04:57.80 +6:19.04 42.208
51 58 NAVARRETE Segundo ECU 21:39.88 (56) 43:52.88 (54) 55:18.67 (52) 1:06:36.76 +7:58.00 41.163
52 56 ASADOV Elchin AZE 21:33.15 (54) 44:02.02 (55) 56:22.68 (54) 1:07:51.69 +9:12.93 40.405
53 44 KRASILNIKAU Andrei BLR 21:20.58 (53) 43:20.55 (53) 55:39.10 (53) 1:07:56.67 +9:17.91 40.356
54 57 ALBOS CAVALIERE David AND 21:38.26 (55) 44:25.37 (56) 56:29.83 (55) 1:07:57.61 +9:18.85 40.347
55 52 KANG Jiyong KOR 22:02.89 (57) 44:32.64 (57) 56:47.70 (56) 1:07:58.42 +9:19.66 40.339
56 54 LENGYEL Gabor HUN 22:59.36 (58) 46:58.81 (58) 59:56.44 (57) 1:12:28.05 +13:49.29 37.837
English
