In 2006, 2007, 2009, and 2010 the winner of the time trial World Championships was Fabian Cancellara. The year missing in that sequence - 2008 - he took the Olympic Games instead, opting not to ride the worlds. So, given the sequence of success, it would have been logical for Cancellara to win in 2011 in Copenhagen. But he was beaten by Tony Martin and Bradley Wiggins, receiving only the bronze medal for his efforts.
Cancellara made no excuses after the 46.4-kilometer affair. "Tony deserved to win today more than anyone else," he said point blank. The Swiss rider quickly realized that there wouldn't be a fifth gold for him today. "I started with a good feeling but could not find my rhythm and I felt that this was not the day where I could give everything." Once the body said no, the mind followed suit. "Maybe that cracked me a bit, feeling that I was just not 100 percent where I should have been."
Cancellara was beaten twice - decisively - by Martin heading into the Worlds. In the Tour de France, the German was 1'42 faster than Cancellara and in the Vuelta a España the gap was 1'27 between the two. Those results did not bother Cancellara. "Before the race, at the Vuelta and while training at home I had felt very good and had good sensations, but today was another day and the result is as it is."
With the dream of gold slipping through his fingers, the mind slipped - and almost the entire rider did so as well. "I lost milliseconds of concentration and almost crashed into the barriers by the Royal Palace; these things happen when you are riding at 100 percent and I am just happy that I did not lose anything." Except that the incident may have lost him the silver medal.
But for a winner like Cancellara silver or bronze almost doesn't matter. He was focused on gold, but at least the mishap did not decide the race. "That was not why I did not win the race," a gracious Cancellara said. He had a gap of 1'20 to Martin in the end.
It was Cancellara's second bronze medal in the event, after Madrid in 2005. Six years ago he lost to Australian Michael Rogers and Jose Ivan Gutierrez Palacios. It was closer then, with Cancellara missing gold by 23 seconds - and silver by a heartbreaking 12 hundredth of a second.