Cancellara rainbow dreamin’

by VeloNews.com

August 29, 2009
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2009 Vuelta – Prologue: Cancellara proves who’s best against the clock.

When the stage has a clock sitting at the finish line and riders start one at a time, you can almost bet the house that Fabian Cancellara is going to be fastest across the line.

The big Swiss time machine reaffirmed his prowess against the clock with an impressive ride on damp but not wet roads in front of 40,000 rowdy Dutch fans to jump start the 64th Vuelta a España and snag the leader’s jersey.

Slicing rain in the middle of the stage hampered the chances of the likes of David Millar (Garmin-Slipstream), but the late starters enjoyed nearly dry conditions for the 4.8km course around the Assen TT motorcycle race course.

The reigning Olympic time trial champion turned on the gas and blitzed across the line in 5 minutes, 20 seconds, with a clean 54.000kph to beat Tom Boonen (Quick Step) by nine seconds while Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Slipstream) continued on his good run with third at 12 seconds slower.

2009 Vuelta – Prologue: Cancellara also took the first leader’s jersey at this year’s Tour de France

Photo: Graham Watson

“I was going pretty fast at the end, but maybe not as fast as Valentino Rossi when he won a MotoGP here,” Cancellara joked, referring to motorcycle king Rossi. “Today was a power course and I knew what I had to do. That’s go like I always do — full gas.”

Somewhat surprisingly, Cancellara told Dutch TV crews before the stage he didn’t think he’d have the legs to win.

Citing the recent race schedule of sprinters and prologue challengers Boonen and Farrar, both of whom bagged stage victories at the recent Eneco Tour, Cancellara said he didn’t think he was in winning form.

2009 Vuelta – Prologue: Farrar takes third, 12 seconds back.

Photo: Graham Watson

Powered by the enthusiastic support of the Dutch fans, however, Cancellara was able to lift his game and claim the Vuelta leader’s jersey for the second of his career.

Like many at this Vuelta, all roads lead to the world championships.

Cancellara says he’s not sure how long he will stay in the Vuelta, but his dream is to wear the rainbow jersey on home roads in Mendrisio at the end of next month.

“I’m here to prepare for the worlds. When the worlds is in your home country, you want to be in the best possible condition, so I will race this Vuelta to get everything I can out of it,” he said. “Everyone knows that the past few years, the world champion has come out of the Vuelta, so why not one more time?”

Cancellara already knows what it feels like to wear the rainbow jersey, winning back-to-back time trial world titles in 2006-07 before skipping last year’s worlds after winning the Olympic gold in Beijing.

But Cancellara is thinking more than just about the time trial. He thinks he can win the road title as well.

“I want to win the rainbow jersey again, in which discipline, we’ll have to see,” Cancellara said.

Race is on

Behind Cancellara, the pre-race favorites showed their colors.

Alexander Vinokourov (Astana) proved his comeback should be taken seriously with seventh at 18 seconds back, though the Kazakh insists he only wants to win a stage and prepare for Mendrisio.

2009 Vuelta – Prologue: Vinokourov had a good ride, but the fans weren’t all that supportive.

Photo: Graham Watson

Tying him were Ivan Basso (Liquigas) and Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne), results that confirm the feeling that this Vuelta is going to be very hotly contested.

Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) was 12th at 19 seconds back, Chris Horner (Astana) 26th at 23 seconds off the pace and Tom Danielson 62nd at 29 seconds off the pace.

Perhaps the biggest name to dig himself in a hole was Tour de France runner-up Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank), 123rd at 38 seconds slower.

Drenthe difficulty

The 64th Vuelta continues Sunday with a challenging, 203.7km second stage over narrow farm roads from Assen to Essem.

2009 Vuelta – Prologue: Basso finished eighth at 18 seconds.

Photo: Graham Watson

The day’s lone rated climb is a fourth-category hill all of 24 meters high, crossing at a cemetery where the man who worked hard to bring the Vuelta to the Drenthe region is buried.

If riders’ aren’t careful, their own Vuelta ambitions could be buried as well.

“Tomorrow is going to be a very hard stage. Riders can lose the Vuelta tomorrow,” cautioned Garmin DS Johnny Weltz. “The roads are very narrow and there’s going to be a lot of wind, so it will be a nervous, fast stage. It could be very dangerous for some riders.”

Cancellara said Saxo Bank will try to defend the jersey, perhaps slotting Danish sprinter Matti Breschel into the mix to spoil the chances of Boonen and Farrar to keep the team in the golden jersey.

“Tomorrow is like a mini-Paris-Roubaix,” Cancellara said. “I rode the Tour of the Drenthe when I was at Mapei. I know about these special cobblestones, the narrow roads, always left, right, left. There will be wind, so we know we have to be at the front.”

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