GEELONG, Australia- Bell Rider and Swiss time trial ace Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) won his unprecedented fourth world time trial championship on Thursday besting second place rider David Miller (Great Britain, Garmin-Transitions) by more than a minute. Germany’s Tony Martin (Columbia-High Road) took the bronze at 1:12 back, while another Bell Rider–Richie Porte (Australia, Saxo Bank)–took fourth on home soil.
The hilly course was not perfectly suited to Cancellara, but the Swiss rider drew on his Classics experience–which this year included the Paris-Roubaix/Tour of Flanders double win–to negotiate two laps of the circuit which included a technical, high-speed descent.
After hitting the first time check some six seconds behind Miller, Cancellara turned it on and never looked back, eventually piling up an unassailable minute plus lead that allowed him to celebrate as he crossed the line–a rarity in the time trial discipline where every second counts. It was a repeat of the scene from last year’s world’s in Switzerland where “Sparticus” was equally dominant in his home country.
In addition to Cancellara and Porte, Sweden’s Gustav Larsen (Saxo Bank) rounded out the top-10 clad in his Bell TT helmet.
