Cyclingpost.com - Cancellara successfully defends time trial title

Cancellara successfully defends time trial title

By Jonathan Roorda
Thu, 27 Sep 2007 16:26:42

STUTTGART, Sep 27 (CP) - Swiss Fabian Cancellara has successfully defended his World Time Trial Championship, clocking an unbeatable time in Stuttgart. Laszlo Bodrogi and Stef Clement took silver and bronze respectively.

The 2007 edition of the World Time Trial Championship consisted of two 22.5km laps in the streets of Stuttgart, Germany, to form a total of 45 kilometers.

German Bert Grabsch was the first to break the 57-minutes barrier at the finish, clocking a time of 56'53".

Riders as Millar and Gutierrez disappointed, and soon showed that they would not compete for the medals this year.

Sebastian Lang was faster than Grabsch at the intermediate check, but lost time in the second part and failed to beat his fellow countryman.

Stef clement meanwhile, clocked the best time at 22.5 kilometers and the young Dutchman impressed by beating Grabsch final time by 14 seconds.

With that time, Clement was on course for a medal as only Laszlo Bodrogi and Fabian Cancellara seemed able to beat that time of 56'39".

And the Hungarian Bodrogi was indeed faster, clocking a time of 56'33", six seconds faster than Clement's.

Then the wait for reigning champion Fabian Cancellara began. The Swiss, normally riding for CSC, was unbeatable and set a final time of 55'41", with which he easily prolonged his title.

The silver medal went to Laszlo Bodrogo, while the day's revelation Stef Clement took the bronze.