Martin outduels Phinney to retain Time Trial title.

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