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Last Updated: 2 Apr 2018 - 8:45:17 PM |
RÁS WINNER MARTIN TAKES WORLD TIME TRIAL CHAMPIONSHIPS, MCCANN 27TH
By Shane Stokes
21 Sep 2011,
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Four years after he won the FBD Rás as a 22 year old, Germany’s Tony Martin dominated the elite time trial at cycling’s world road race championships today, finishing far ahead of the rest of the field.
The rider, who also won time trials in the Tour de France and Vuelta a España this year, was a full one minute 16 seconds clear of runner-up Bradley Wiggins (Great Britain). Last year’s champion Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland) was running closest to Martin throughout the test and looked set for second, but almost crashed on a corner near the end and lost at least ten seconds.
He finished five seconds behind Wiggins and had to be content with bronze.
Ireland’s David McCann was 27th in the 46.4 kilometre test, four minutes 53.65 seconds behind Martin. National champion Matt Brammeier had a difficult day due to a sore throat and pulled out during the event.
“Basically he is just out of the Tour of Britain and is a bit run down,” said Cycling Ireland’s High Performance Manager Phil Leigh to Irishcycling.com this evening. “He has a sore throat. We will see how he feels and then decide.”
With Nicolas Roche and Daniel Martin set to ride Sunday’s road race and one additional place left for the Irish team, Leigh must decide whether Brammeier or McCann should line out in four day’s time. Brammeier has raced at a higher level this season due to being part of a WorldTour team, but McCann could get the nod if the former’s illness makes his form uncertain for Sunday.
“It has to be decided tomorrow…there is a manager’s meeting and we must have the names then,” said Leigh, explaining that the team didn’t have much time to decide. “We will know where we are by tomorrow lunchtime. He will see the doctor, and David can ride if Matt doesn’t feel up to it.”
Tomorrow is a rest day at the worlds, with the road races running between Friday and Sunday. The highlight of the Irish team’s campaign thus far has been Ryan Mullen’s sixteenth place yesterday in the junior men’s time trial; both he and Jack Wilson will race in Saturday’s junior men’s road race and Leigh hopes for a good showing.
“Ryan had a superb ride yesterday…he was fifth first-year junior as well, which is a big point for next year,” he said. “Jack has been winning UCI races in Belgium and France, so he’s been going well. I am not trying to put pressure on them at all, but they are capable [of a big result] if things go right.
“We have some great under 23s as well. Bennett and Lavery have been riding well in 1.1 races and are capable of getting up there. Felix English is still very young [18 – ed.] and is learning, but he’ll ride for the others in that road race.”
Bennett crashed last weekend, prompting fears that his worlds could be affected, but Leigh said that there are no concerns. “Sam is fine, that was last Sunday,” he said. “These guys bounce back, he is in good shape. They came in yesterday, went and saw the course and are happy with how things are. Hopefully it goes well for him, and also for the others too; we have Siobhan [Horgan] in the women’s race as well.”
This year’s championships is the flattest in many years, boosting expectations that there could be a big sprint on Sunday. Martin and Roche are both solid climbers and so things would suit better if the course was more selective. Still, despite that, Leigh said the Elite trio will aim to do as well as possible.
“It is not a mountain course, it is far from that, but at the same time it will be a hard race,” he said. “The lads are arriving tomorrow, we will sit down and talk about tactics then. We have to see where they are at, see how they are feeling, and then take it from there. We have got some ideas about tactics, but until we sit down and talk we’ll have to wait and see.”
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Elite world time trial championship, Copenhagen:
1, Tony Martin (Germany) 46.4 kilometres in 53 mins 43 secs
2, Bradley Wiggins (Great Britain) at 1 min 16 secs
3, Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland) at 1 min 21 secs
4, Bert Grabsch (Germany) at 1 min 32 secs
5, Jack Bobridge (Australia) at 2 mins 14 secs
6, Richie Porte (Australia) at 2 mins 30 secs
7, David Millar (Great Britain) at 2 mins 46 secs
8, Lieuwe Westra (Netherlands) at 3 mins 19 secs
9, Alexsandr Dyachenko (Kazakhstan) at 3 mins 20 secs
10, Jakob Fuglsang (Denmark) at 3 mins 31 secs
Other:
27, David McCann (Ireland) at 4 mins 53.65 secs
DNF: Matt Brammeier (Ireland)
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