Featured Stories

Wiggins Claims UCI Road Worlds Elite Men’s ITT Title in Style – Canada’s Tuft 28th

by Andrew Rogers

September 24, 2014 (Ponferrada, Spain) – Bradley Wiggins (Great Britain) produced a perfect ride to claim the Elite Men’s ITT world title for the first time in his storied career and end Tony Martin’s (Germany) three-year reign following a nail-biting race as Martin settled for the silver. Tom Dumoulin (Netherlands) took home the bronze medal with an excellent ride, while Canada’s lone entry Svein Tuft end up 28th out of 69 starters.

Final podium (l-r) Martin 2nd, Wiggins 1st, Dumoulin 3rd  ©  Cor Vos

Martin was hoping for a fourth consecutive victory but Wiggins, a former Tour de France winner and the reigning Olympic champ, had announced this would be his last ever Road Worlds in an all-or-nothing attempt to beat Martin and claim the World ITT, the one title that has eluded him. Wiggins went out on style, pulling on the rainbow jersey.

Wiggins en route to gold  ©  Cor Vos

The Elite men didn’t have to battle the cold or heavy rains in Ponferrada as things heated up nicely for today’s battle. Using his experience and ability to carefully pace his effort over the 57.1km course Wiggins was the first rider to go under 57 min forcing Martin’s hand and besting him by a decisive 26.2-second margin. The GBR rider was slower than Martin at the first time split but he kicked in after that and was unstoppable leading at the next two checkpoints and increasing his lead until his triumphant finish.

Martin gave it his best... ©  Cor Vos

Wiggins, always the philospoher gentleman admitted after donning the rainbow stripes, “I would still die happy if I didn’t win this race, but for sure it’s great to put it with my other accolades. I said a while back in London (after winning the Olympic ITT gold medal) that anything after that was gravy.”

Dumoulin... ©  Cor Vos

When asked about his strategy he reflected. “I didn’t know about my splits until 5km to go because I wanted to do my own ride, not trying to adjust my game listening to where I was at the splits. At the top of the climb I heard I was 10 seconds faster than Tony and I shit myself (happy). Weighing 72 kilos I knew if I stayed at my proper wattage I could get the better of him (Tony) on this course.”

Wiggins savours victory... ©  Cor Vos

Martin, visibly exhausted, collapsed behind the crowd for over five minutes but maintained his composure at the press conference. “I know everyone expected me to win, but I’m not a machine – and that was never my prediction – we are both capable of winning. I already felt somewhat tired from the TTT.”

Wiggins and his team... ©  Cor Vos

Wiggins, 34, announced that this was his final championship race and he will not defend the jersey in Richmond, Virginia in 2015. When asked about next year climbing back into the rainbow jersey, Martin smiled, “Well, we’ll have to first see if Wiggins doesn’t actually compete.”

Canada's Tuft... ©  Bruno Nella

Tuft, the 2014 Canadian road and ITT champ, admitted that the TTT took a lot out of him as he and his Orica-GreenEdge team were going for the top spot on the podium, and today he paid the price. “I wanted to do well here today, but you make choices, and sometimes the body is tired, it happens. It’s been quite a year in any case.”

Tuft gave us a full interview talking about various topics including his race today, the TTT and how special it is, his ITT ritual, plans after retirement, 2015 and more…here.

Full results here.





Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.


Pedal Magazine