September 22, 2005 – Australia’s Michael Rogers has accomplished an impressive and unprecedented feat in the world of cycling, taking the Elite Men’s TT World Championships in Madrid, Spain today. Rogers averaged just a hair under 50km/h for the win, beating Spain’s Jose Ivan Gutierrez who sat in the hot seat with the fastest time until Rogers finished. Swiss rider, Fabian Cancellera, took the bronze medal, just a fraction of a second behind Guttierrez. The other favourites such as Kazak Alex Vinokourov, Bradley Wiggins (GBR) and U.S.A.’s Bobby Julich also finished in or near the top-ten.

Canada had two entrants, Disco’s Ryder Hesjedal (who will be riding for Phonak in ’06, check our news item posterd earlier today for more info) and Symmetrics’ Eric Wohlberg. Both had respectable rides today, finishing 22nd and 34th respectively, but were well off the super-sonic pace set by Rogers. Hamilton, Ontario’s Peter Mazur, riding for Poland, finished 33rd.

The next event for the elite men is the showcase event on Sunday, September 25th – the elite men’s road race – where the action gets underway at 10am.

2005 World Elite Men’s ITT Championships, 44.1 km

1. Michael Rogers (Australia) 53:34.49 (49.389 kmph)
2. Jose Ivan Gutierrez Palacios (Spain) at 0:23.77
3. Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland) 0:23.89
4. Ruben Plaza Molina (Spain) 0:44.06
5. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kazakhstan) 1:20.24
6. Andrey Kashechkin (Kazakhstan) 1:29.00
7. Bradley Wiggins (Great Britain) 1:31.60
8. Sebastian Lang (Germany) 1:35.32
9. Matias Medici (Argentina) 1:37.07
10. Victor Hugo Pena Grisales (Colombia) 1:41.27
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22. Ryder Hesjedal (Canada) 2:42.82 2:58.93
33. Peter Mazur (Poland) 3:37.28
34. Eric Wohlberg (Canada) 3:40.32 4:49.63