Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) won the stage 19 time trial of the Tour de France between Bordeaux and Pauillac. The World champion blitzed the flat, exposed course in 1h 00’57”, just 17 seconds ahead of Tony Martin and 1’48” ahead of Bert Grabsch (both HTC-Columbia).
Cancellara took the stage on the 91st birthday of the first Swiss rider to win the Tour, Ferdi Kubler, who won the 1950 edition. It was also the first long time trial won by Cancellara on the day of the race. His one previous victory was the retrospective award of the 53km stage 20 in 2008, after the disqualification of Stefan Schumacher.
The battle for the overall classification took an unexpected twist as Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) put up more resistance to Alberto Contador (Astana) than anybody predicted.
“I’m proud, happy and also really, really tired,” said Cancellara of his victory, which he adds to the prologue that he took three weeks ago. “The Tour is long and there are always a lot of things going on. To start and finish with a win, that’s great.”
”I'm truly happy about the victory,” he added later. “Time trials over an hour are insanely demanding where you have to keep focus every second of the way to hold the rhythm and pressure on the pulse.
“On the paper, the course looks pretty flat and easy but believe me it was lumpy,” he explained, “and the headwind forced me to dig deep within myself to come up with the power to do this after a long and wearing Tour de France. But I really wanted to win.
“I'm sorry that Andy wasn't able to take the jersey today,” he added, “but we had a great Tour with both Andy and me in the leader's jersey, winning the white jersey, four stage wins and a spot on the podium,”
Bert Grabsch puts his red light out
As overnight Lanterne Rouge, Bert Grabsch (HTC-Columbia) was the first man to start ramp at 10:15 this morning. As the 2008 World time trial champion though, he was unlikely to post a slow time and would probably lose his prestigious last place in the standings; his time at the finish was an impressive 1h 02’44”.
Second to last in the standings, Adriano Malori (Lampre-Farnese Vini), was the next man to ride. Predictably, the Italian finished 5’27” slower than Grabsch and slipped into the lucrative last place in the standings.
Grabsch’s time might have stood for some time, as none of the early starters could get close to his finishing time. 27th man to start though was his compatriot and HTC-Columbia teammate Tony Martin, the bronze medallist from the Mendrisio World championships last year. Martin flew around the course, faster than Grabsch at all the time checks, to finish 1’31” ahead of Grabsch in 1h 01’14”.
Martin was to spend even less time at the top than Grasch though, as Cancellara was only 12 minutes behind him on the road.
Spartacus meets some early resistance but will not be denied
The World champion was, almost surprisingly, 9 seconds behind Martin at the first checkpoint after 18.2km. Spartacus accelerated from there though, and had reversed the deficit by the 36.2km point to go 9 seconds ahead. His lead remained static at the 45.4km point but a final burst to the finish saw him increase the margin to 17 seconds.
Ignatas Konovalovas (Cervélo TestTeam) started just 2 minutes ahead of Cancellara. The Lithuanian time trial champion was caught by the World champion and had the benefit of the faster Swiss rider to follow in the distance and finished in a provisional 4th place, 2’34” back.
Captain America sets off just as the wind gets stronger
David Zabriskie (Garmin-Transitions) started stongly, but as the US champion headed out onto the exposed course the wind off the Atlantic Ocean began to strengthten. Zabriskie still managed to finish a provisional 5th, exactly 3 minutes slower than Cancellara; he was to hold on to this place right to the end as the later riders struggled with the conditions even more.
Koos Moerenhout (Rabobank), riding his last Tour before retiring at the end of the year, went third fastest at the first checkpoint; the Dutchman managed to hold on to go sixth, 3 seconds slower than Zabriskie, at 3’03”.
Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) started well, going provisional third at the first checkpoint, but faded slightly to eighth by the second check. The British champion went on to finish in ninth position, 3’33” behind Cancellara and 5 seconds ahead of Sky teammate Geraint Thomas.
Shuffling of positions inside the top ten
As the top riders in the overall classification began to start, many of them had the possibility to move up the standings if they could beat the rider ahead of them. Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Transitions) needed to take 2’15” from Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) to overtake him in the standings and move up to 7th overall. He had taken more than half that by the first checkpoint, and by the second check he was a virtual 10 seconds ahead of the Spaniard.
The Canadian was riding the time trial of his life and came within just 44 seconds of overhauling Robert Gesink (Rabobank) in 6th; while Rodriguez was going so badly that he almost lost 7th place to Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas-Doimo).
The expected battle between Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) in third and Denis Menchov (Rabobank) for the third step of the podium turned out to be just as one sided. Sanchez started the day just 21 seconds ahead of Menchov, and had lost 48 seconds to the Russian by the first time check.
Menchov was having the best day of all the overall contenders and went on to finish in 11th place, just 3’51” outside Cancellara’s time, despite riding in far worse conditions than the World champion.
On his way to the finish Menchov caught Jurgen Van Den Broeck (OmegaPharma-Lotto), who’d started 3 minutes ahead of him; the Belgian was in no danger of losing his 5th place though, as Gesink was having an even worse ride than he was.
Schleck and Contador take it closer than anyone expected
The battle for the yellow jersey between Schleck and Contador was far closer than had been expected. All the predictions had Schleck losing between 1’30” and 2 minutes to Contador; a combination of a bad day for Contador and a great day for Schleck though, saw the riders as closely matched as they have been for the entire Tour.
Contador started slightly faster than Schleck, the GPS showing that he was a further 4 seconds ahead of the Luxemburger. At the first checkpoint though, Schleck had pulled ahead of Contador, going 2 seconds faster and cutting the defending champion’s overall classification lead to just 6 seconds on the road.
Contador sped up slightly though, and passed the second checkpoint 7 seconds faster than Schleck. The Luxembourg champion was clearly holding his own against the yellow jersey though and was still just 17 seconds down at the third check with 6.6km to go. A mechanical problem or a misjudged effort for Contador could see him lose the Tour.
Schleck was fading slightly in the final few kilometres though, and Contador managed to hold his effort right to the line. Schleck finished 44th, 6’14” behind Cancellara; Contador finished in 35th, 5’43” behind Cancellara, but more importantly 31 seconds quicker than Schleck.
With just tomorrow’s ceremonial final stage to Paris remaining Contador now leads Schleck by 39 seconds, ironically the same amount of time that he took from Schleck in the controversial finish to stage 15 in Bagnères-de-Luchon.
Result stage 19
1. Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team Saxo Bank in 1h 00’57”
2. Tony Martin (Ger) HTC-Columbia @ 17s
3. Bert Grabsch (Ger) HTC-Columbia @ 1’48”
4. Ignatas Konovalovas (Ltu) Cervélo TestTeam @ 2’34”
5. David Zabriskie (USA) Garmin-Transitions @ 3’00”
6. Koos Moerenhout (Ned) Rabobank @ 3’03”
7. Vasil Kiryienka (Blr) Caisse d’Epargne @ 3’10”
8. Maarten Tjallingii (Ned) Rabobank @ 3’21”
9. Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Team Sky @ 3’33”
10. Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky @ 3’38”
Standings after stage 19
1. Alberto Contador (Spa) Team Astana
2. Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank @ 39s
3. Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank @ 2’01”
4. Samuel Sanchez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi @ 3’40”
5. Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) OmegaPharma-Lotto @ 6’54”
6. Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank @ 9’31”
7. Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin-Transitions @ 10’15”
8. Joaquin Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha @ 11’37”
9. Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas-Doimo @ 11’54”
10. Chris Horner (USA) Team RadioShack @ 12’02”