German Bert Grabsch Wins Men’s World Time Trial Gold
VARESE, Italy, Sept 25, 2008 (AFP) - Germany’s Bert Grabsch upstaged a
handful of more fancied contenders to claim a maiden time trial gold at the
world road race championships here on Thursday.
Grabsch, the national champion in the race against the clock, took full
advantage of the absence of two-time defending champion Fabian Cancellara of
Switzerland to finish in a winning time of 52min 01sec.
Over a relatively flat 43.7 km course which featured rolling sections,
Canada’s Svein Tuft, an early pacesetter, finished second to take silver with
David Zabriskie of the United States claiming bronze.
While Tuft, a north-America based racer, claimed Canada’s first world medal
in the event since the famous Steve Bauer in 1984, Zabriskie upstaged gold
medal favourite and compatriot Levi Leipheimer.
Leipheimer came into the race fresh from winning both time trials at the
Tour of Spain but finished 1 min 05sec behind Grabsch and nearly 14secs off
the bronze medal pace.
Australian Michael Rogers, a three-time world champion between 2003-2005,
also failed to live up to expectations.
He finished a disappointing 12th at 1:33 behind and was left rueing the
small virus which hampered his training plans in recent weeks.
Cancellara, the champion in 2007 and 2006, decided not to compete after
citing fatigue at the end of a season which he began with victories at
Milan-San Remo and Tirreno-Adriatico and finished with the Olympic time trial
gold.
The Beijing silver medallist, Gustav Larsson of Sweden, finished fifth just
behind Leipheimer while Britain’s David Millar was ninth at 1:25.
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