Thursday, September 24, 2009

Cancellara wins again

Fabian Cancellara has proven to be the reigning king of the time trial. He's not so bad outside of the time trial either.

Cancellara, riding for Switzerland instead of Saxo Bank (the former CSC) today blew out the rest of the world cyclists in the World Championships Time Trial, defeating his teammate Gustav Larsson, riding for Sweden, by 1:27. Germany's Tony Martin was third, 2:30 behind. American Tom Zirbel was fourth, 2:46 behind. Zirbel is joining Garmin-Slipstream next year, and it will be interesting to see how he does in a full international season.

Not competing were the Astana pair who were the closest competitors to the Saxo Bank duo in last year's Beijing Olympics: American Levi Leipheimer and Spaniard Alberto Contador. Of course, with Leipheimer's recovery from his wrist break and Contador's uncertain status for next year, their absence comes as no surprise.

Cancellara also was the bronze medalist in the men's road race in the Beijing Olympics. We'll see if he has a double left in him here.

In the women's time trial, American Kristin Armstrong won again, also matching her Beijing Olympics gold, and then confirmed her retirement after the women's road race. She doesn't intend to match Jeanne Longo in staying in the sport until age 50. Considering the limited sponsorship payments even to the top women, that's easy to understand.

More interestingly, UCI voted to ban the use of race radios, despite the fact that the big teams swear by them. Honestly, I think most of the European opposition to race radios is that they are seen as an American innovation (which they were, courtesy of Team Motorola, and they became an essential after former Motorola rider -- and American rider -- Lance Armstrong became the poster boy for them), and no one in Europe seems to be too happy about the presence of three American teams (plus a British team) in the top tier of cycling next year.

However, considering that UCI doesn't have control over the three Grand Tours, we'll see what happens from here. Will the Grand Tours drop the radios after the huge fight over them at the Tour de France this year (which the teams won)?

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