Worlds elite men TT: A too small podium

Renaat Schotte: "First post-race interview Cancellara: 'the strongest won, my TT was not good, almost crashed, no rythm' " Who can say it better then him? Cancellara's TT was just the last disappointing race of a disappointing season. For a disappointing team I'll add. In fact it's obvious that Tony Martin was the strongest during all the year and maybe Cancellara is geting 'old' - you can't stop the Time even if you are the Master of Time - BUT you can suppose a lack of preparation too, given that all the top riders by LT had problems to keep their previous performaces level. All one excluded - or maybe no: Jakob Fuglsang after a great Vuelta is 10th in the Worlds TT. I wonder what he could have done with a better team and think for next year he's going to make a smarter choice. 

Disappointing really was Taylor Phinney 15th: not the podium and not even the top ten. In the Vuelta he suffered a lot and his shape wasn't super. He's so young that maybe we expected too much. We - and he - are better to wait a little more, given his talent is evident and great.

Maciej Bodnar (Poland) 55th had a mechanic problem if I got it right, Thomas De Gendt (Belgium) 50th and Michael Morkov (Denmark) 47th didn't so I can just say it wasn't their day. The last in GC, Zignoli (Albania) arrived to the line foaming at the mouth but many other riders looked really tired: because of the wind and the long gears used.

Grabsch and Bobridge were amazing: the podium looked too small his year and my quote of the day is by  J.Sergent: "Sitting in the 4th place hot seat wondering why there is a seat for 4th,feel sorry for who ever is here at the finish next to the medalists!" Well, when you did such a TT 4th and 5th should be really hard. 

Some guys there made me jump on the sofa: Castroviejo's best intermediate time that resisted till the true end of the race, when super specialists smashed the fiel, Sergent who set the first serious best time, Tuft who looked like to want to beat the road, Fuglsang who was the most impressive to me. He is a good time trialist but here he was competing against the best in the world AND he is also good in climbing and flat. I have never been a Fuglsang supporter but I must admit he could be one of the best riders in the peloton in the next few years.

Wiggins surprised me. For sure he had a wonderful season: Dauphiné, Vuelta, now silver in Worlds TT. Chapeau. Whitout that crash in Tour de France maybe...

Finally a general consideration: cycling is really changing. First Italian Malori is 24th, first French Bodrogi is 22th. After/with Australia, North Europe rules and 'old' nation go down. In TT at least: we will see in RR!

1	Tony Martin (Germany)	0:53:43.85
2	Bradley Wiggins (Great Britain)	0:01:15.83
3	Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland)	0:01:20.59
4	Bert Grabsch (Germany)	0:01:31.76
5	Jack Bobridge (Australia)	0:02:13.86
6	Richie Porte (Australia)	0:02:29.54
7	David Millar (Great Britain)	0:02:45.62
8	Lieuwe Westra (Netherlands)	0:03:18.52
9	Alexandr Dyachenko (Kazakhstan)	0:03:19.76
10	Jakob Fuglsang (Denmark)	0:03:30.59
11	Castroviejo Nicola (Spain)	0:03:34.37
12	Gustav Larsson (Sweden)	0:03:34.62
13	Svein Tuft (Canada)	0:03:35.89
14	Janez Brajkovic (Slovenia)	0:03:44.74
15	Taylor Phinney (United States Of America)	0:03:52.58
16	Andrew Talansky (United States Of America)	0:03:57.89
17	Nélson Oliveira (Portugal)	0:04:14.98
18	Jesse Sergent (New Zealand)	0:04:26.31
19	Jack Bauer (New Zealand)	0:04:26.99
20	Stef Clement (Netherlands)	0:04:33.93
21	Frantisek Rabon (Czech Republic)	0:04:39.85
22	Laszlo Bodrogi (France)	0:04:41.46
23	Vasili Kiryienka (Belarus)	0:04:42.60
24	Adriano Malori (Italy)	0:04:46.58
25	Mikhail Ignatyev (Russian Federation)	0:04:47.97
26	Marco Pinotti (Italy)	0:04:48.12
27	David Mccann (Ireland)	0:04:53.65
28	Ignatas Konovalovas (Lithuania)	0:05:00.51
29	Dominique Cornu (Belgium)	0:05:01.36
30	Ioannis Tamouridis (Greece)	0:05:07.74
31	Eugen Wacker (Kyrgyzstan)	0:05:10.46
32	Gediminas Bagdonas (Lithuania)	0:05:18.89
33	Casas Buitrago (Colombia)	0:05:20.23
34	Carlos Oyarzun (Chile)	0:05:22.32
35	Leandro Messineo (Argentina)	0:05:23.67
36	Dmitriy Gruzdev (Kazakhstan)	0:05:29.90
37	Alexander Wetterhall (Sweden)	0:05:35.10
38	Matej Jurco (Slovakia)	0:05:37.35
39	Jesus Herrada Lopez (Spain)	0:05:39.30
40	Martin Kohler (Switzerland)	0:05:43.24
41	Vladimir Gusev (Russian Federation)	0:05:49.99
42	Dimitri Champion (France)	0:05:50.82
43	Reidar Borgersen (Norway)	0:05:54.83
44	Matias Medici (Argentina)	0:05:56.21
45	Robert Vrecer (Slovenia)	0:06:04.21
46	Rafaa Chtioui (Tunisia)	0:06:10.00
47	Michael Morkov (Denmark)	0:06:10.16
48	Michal Kwiatkowski (Poland)	0:06:13.80
49	Faria Da Costa (Portugal)
50	Thomas De Gendt (Belgium)
51	Anacona Gomez W A (Colombia)
52	Oleksandr Kvachuk (Ukraine)
53	Matti Helminen (Finland)
54	Gil Martinez T A (Venezuela)
55	Maciej Bodnar (Poland)
56	Vitaliy Popkov (Ukraine)
57	Jiri Hudecek (Czech Republic)
58	Pavol Polievka (Slovakia)
59	Ferekalsi Debesay (Eritrea)
60	David Albos (Andorra)
61	Tyron Giorgieri (Albania)
62	Simone Zignoli (Albania)