Alexandre Vinokourov is showing some great time trialling abilities as he captured the bronze medal in the World Time Trial Championships. Vino’s third place spoiled the Team CSC domination as he displaced Brian Vandborg to forth. Fabian Cancellara and David Zabriske two of CSCs time trialing specialist took first and second.
David Millar had a bad day as he came in 11th place and three time former World TT Champ Michael Rogers finished 8th.
Cancellara’s win is sweet revenge for the time trial loss to David Millar in the Vuelta. Plus, this win justifies Cancellara leaving the Vuelta just as Sastre needed all the team support he could get going into the last week.
Now that the dust has settled… I am looking back at Paris-Roubaix with a few thoughts. Much has been written about this “epic” version of Roubaix that provided some memorable images and discussion to go on for ages.
Cancellara, D’oh
All of the pre-race hype centered on Boonen and possibly George Hincapie getting the win. It just seemed like a lock that the two would end up dueling for the top spot in some way. But Cancellara has been placing well in the last few years, he was the forgotten contender by everyone except former T-Mobile team manager Walter Goodefroot and of course Bjarne Riis. Cancellara used his time trialing skills to ride everyone off of his wheels.
Younger winners
It used to be that Paris-Roubaix was a victory that had to be earned. Riders like Franco Ballerini, Andrea Tafi, Gilbert Duclos Lasalle and many others had to pay their dues before they finally came into Roubaix to win. With this thought the sentimental crowd must have been wagering on a Hincapie victory.
With Boonen last year and Cancellara this year, the trend seems to be going down to younger, but experienced riders. We could possibly be seeing these two trade off wins in the next few years.
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Rabobank traded GC leaders today as Oscar Friere gave up the yellow and red jersey to the young all rounder Tomas Dekker. Cyclingnews has a bit of info on the young Dutchman.
Trained by Luigi Cecchini and considered one of the biggest future stars in world cycling, Dekker the younger had improved his climbing considerably over the winter, going as far to break Basso’s winter record time on the 936m high Monte Serra, so it would have been an interesting test regardless.
Fabian Cancellara won the stage which was a 20km Time Trial. Bad weather hampered the later riders who weren’t quite able to overhaul the TT specialist.
Bad weather is affecting Monday’s stage as the finish was changed to a flatter route with the finish in Torricella Sicura instead of the hilltop village of San Giacomo.
On Saturday, Alessandro Petacchi botched the sprint and was beaten by THOR Hushovd in a photo finish.
CSC News
Velonews Stage 5
