Cancellara hits gold for the second time

Keystone

Swiss cyclist Fabian Cancellara has defended his elite men's time trial title at the Road World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany.

The victory comes a day after his compatriot Karin Thürig failed to replicate her medal-winning performances of 2005 and 2006 in the women’s event.

The 26-year-old Cancellara covered the hilly 44.9-kilometre course over the streets of Stuttgart in 55 minutes and 44 seconds.

Laszlo Bodrogi of Hungary was 52 seconds behind in second and Stef Clement of the Netherlands was third, 58 seconds back.

Cancellara, who wore the leader’s yellow jersey for the first week of this year’s Tour de France, retained the title he won last year in Graz, Austria.

In cloudy and cool conditions, Cancellara, who went out last, overtook Vladimir Gusev even though the Russian started one minute before him.

“When I saw this morning it was raining, I had in mind the Tour de France stage when I crashed,” Cancellara said after the race.

“I made a very fast start and it was important to know the times of the other riders. It was an advantage to start at number one.”

Cancellara said defending his title had been harder than winning it. Last year, he ended the three-year reign of Australia’s Michael Rogers. David Zabriskie of the United States, who was last year’s silver medallist, faded to 12th.

“There was more pressure than last year,” Cancellara said. “I just had one goal: to defend the title – and it was beautiful, for sure.”

In the women’s competition on Wednesday, Switzerland’s Karin Thürig, who won gold in 2005 and silver last year behind Kristin Armstrong of the US, failed to add another medal to her collection, finishing ninth, one minute and 35 seconds off the pace.

German rider Hanka Kupfernagel took gold in the women’s event, ahead of Armstrong and Christiane Söder of Austria.

swissinfo with agencies

Key facts

Cancellara was born in Bern in 1981, and became a professional road bicycle racer in 2001.
His career highlights include the under-23 championship individual time trial in 1999, and the Paris-Roubaix race in 2006.
He also won the prologue at the 2004 Tour de France and clinched four titles at Switzerland’s national time trial championships since 2002.
Cancellara joined Team CSC in 2006 after the Fassa Bortolo team was discontinued at the end of 2005.

Key facts

Results of the men’s road time trial (44.9 km):
1. Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland) 55:41.
2. Laszlo Bodrogi (Hungary) +0:52.
3. Stef Clement (Netherlands) 0:57.
4. Bert Grabsch (Germany) 1:12.
5. Sebastian Lang (Germany) 1:17.
6. Wladimir Gussew (Russia) 1:46.