Olympic Time Trial Review

LONDON - Road cycling is basically the Bradley Wiggins show now. Wiggins (Great Britain) followed up his recent Tour de France overall victory with a Gold Medal in the Individual Time Trial today. The win was no shock as Wiggins gained much of his huge Tour de France lead on the back of his time trial abilities (he was second in the prologue and won both long time trials).

In the time trial Wiggins beat World Champion Tony Martin (Germany) by 42 seconds after trailing at the first time check, but that was expected as Wiggins gets much better as time trials go on and Martin is still recovering from his injuries both in the early season and in his stage 1 crash at the Tour de France.

Further down the standings, Tour de France runner up (and Wiggins teammate) Chris Froome (Great Britain) took the bronze over Taylor Phinney (United States). For Phinney, the result was his second 4^th of the Olympics. While a disappointment for him to not medal, he is only 22 and will have many chances over the coming year in both the Olympics and World Championships.

As for defending champion Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland), he finished 7^th while obviously uncomfortable on his bike after his crash in the road race on Saturday. Still, he gave a good effort as he was 3^rd at the first time check and 4^th and the other two before fading at the end.

For Wiggins, the win caps one of the greatest seasons in road cycling history. Nobody had managed to win the week-long stage races of Paris-Nice, the Tour of Romandie and the Criterium du Dauphine in the same season. It got better after that with his Tour de France win (the crown jewel of the wins) and then he added the cherry on top with his time trial victory today.

In addition, Wiggins became the most decorated British Olympic athlete ever with his 7^th career Olympic medal (three gold). The previous medals all came on the track with a bronze in 2000, a gold, a silver and a bronze in 2004 and two golds in 2008.

Next up for Wiggins is a possible run at the World Time Trial Championship in September. He was second to Martin last year. Beyond that, it is likely that he will being prepping for next season as he is unlikely to race the Vuelta a Espana and there are no major targets other than the Time Trial Championship that suit his abilities until next year.

Sorry no pictures today, I was on time check duty on the course today.

Giro d'Italia Daily Stage 3 - Major crash mars yet another sprint

Today's stage: Another long (190 km), flat stage ending in a sprint. There really isn't much else that can be done in Denmark.

Who won today's stage? Matt Goss (Orica GreenEdge) bettered his second place from yesterday by winning today over JJ Haedo (Saxo Bank) and Tyler Farrar (Garmin) after yesterday's winner Mark Cavendish (Team Sky) was collected in a crash (more on that later).

What matters in the GC race? Nothing in the grand picture. In the short term, current leader Taylor Phinney (BMC) was contesting the sprint and got collected in the crash. He finished in an ambulance and may not continue in the race, but he keeps the leaders jersey for now as the crash happened inside the last three km during a sprint meaning he gets the same time as everyone else.

Biggest surprise: Goss was going to win the stage over Cavendish even without the crash. Cavendish's team didn't do a great job of setting him up resulting in a late start to his sprint. That was the main reason he was collected in the crash and even without it likely could have only reached 3^rd place.

Biggest disappointment: The crash itself was just stupid riding from Roberto Ferrari (Androni-Giacatolli) who jumped right looking for a gap that wasn't there (or even close to being there) and took Cavendish's front wheel out. From there the pile up was on collecting numerous other riders including Phinney.

Other items of note: Riders paid tribute to Wouter Weylandt, killed in a crash during stage 3 last season. His number (108) has been officially retired by the race... Tonight is the longest transfer in Giro history with everyone traveling to Italy to get the real fireworks started.

What is coming tomorrow? Tomorrow is a rest day because of the long transfer. Then it's Team Time Trial day on Wednesday. The TTT is always interesting and nearly always eliminates someone from GC contention because his team is awful in this discipline. The question is who that will be.

Giro d'Italia Daily - Stage 1 TT

Today's stage: A short, flat 8.7 km time trial in Denmark to kick of the Giro d'Italia

Who won today's stage? Taylor Phinney (BMC) won the biggest race of his young career thus far and it doubles as the first thing BMC has won all season. Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) was second and Alex Rasmussen (Garmin-Barracuda) was 3^rd riding in his home country.

What matters in the GC race? We have a Giro that, for the most part, is even more allergic to time trials than usual. The generally accepted GC contenders are Michele Scarponi (Lampre, 135^th place), Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale, 35^th place), Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha, 44^th place), Frank Schleck (Radio Shack-Nissan-Trek, 108^th place) and Roman Krueziger (Astana, 29^th place). Given those results, it's obvious what this Giro will be about (mountains, always mountains) unless darkhorse Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Barricuda, 17^th place) has better climbing legs than expected.

What matters in the other competitions? Nothing so far. Phinney qualifies for the young riders category too so he leads everything right now.

Biggest surprise: Nothing. Many in the cycling world thought Phinney, Thomas and Rasmussen were all possible stage winners. Them finishing on the podium is no shock.

Biggest disappointment: Scarponi's ride in the pink jersey was terrible. After being presented with last year's pink jersey after Alberto Contador was disqualified, Scarponi got the honor of starting in the pink jersey and starting last. He then turned in a worse time than Frank Schleck. The same Frank Schleck who despises time trials and also didn't know he was racing the Giro until teammate Jakob Fuglsang was injured a week ago.

Other items of note: The sprinters will not be happy. For the most part these first stage time trials are shorter and leave them close enough to take the overall lead with time bonuses. Given the length though, the sprinters are a bit too far back for that to happen as the longer a time trial gets, the better the specialists in the discipline do.

What is coming tomorrow? Long, boring, dull sprint day. Maybe crosswinds will play a role, but barring that, it will be a long processional that catches the breakaway 15 km before the finish and finishes in a bunch sprint, likely to be won by either Mark Cavendish (Team Sky) or Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Barracuda).