Fabian Cancellara (Radioshack-Leopard) fired a warning shot to his rivals for the World Championship title with victory in the Vuelta a Espana‘s stage 11 individual time trial.
Cancellara clocked 51 minutes over the 38.8km course to beat Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) to the stage win by 37 seconds.
Cancellara, Martin and Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky), who is to ride the Tour of Britain, are set to go head-to-head for the world time trial title in Florence on Wednesday September 25.
Meanwhile, Giro d’Italia champion Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) regained the race lead after finishing fourth on the hilly course, one minute and 27 seconds behind Cancellara. Previous race leader Chris Horner (Radioshack-Leopard) finished 20th on the stage to drop to fourth overall.
Cancellara said: “I’m happy that is over. It was a very hard parcours that was not perfect for a specialist, but I said to myself that I needed to do my race at my own pace and just find the right rhythm for myself.
“I know that I gave the maximum,” said Cancellara. “This was a good test for myself that had nothing to do with my competitors and more about seeing how I’m feeling. It was both uphill and then downhill and required a good workout. I’m happy with my performance.”
Vuelta a Espana 2013: stage 11 – result
1) Fabian Cancellara (SWI) – Radioshack-Leopard – 51’00”
2) Tony Martin (GER) – Omega Pharma-QuickStep +37″
3) Domenico Pozzovivo (ITA) – Ag2r La Mondiale +1’24”
4) Vincenzo Nibali (ITA) – Astana +1’25”
5) Dario Cataldo (ITA) – Team Sky +1’41”
6) Nicolas Roche (IRL) – Saxo-Tinkoff +1’48”
7) Alejandro Valverde (SPA) – Movistar +1’52”
8) Jerome Coppel (FRA) – Cofidis – same time
9) Janez Brajkovic (SLO) – Astana +1’53”
10) Samuel Sanchez (SPA) – Euskaltel-Euskadi +2’13”
General classification
1) Vincenzo Nibali (ITA) – Astana – 41:22:22 hours
2) Nicolas Roche (IRL) – Saxo-Tinkoff +33″
3) Alejandro Valverde (SPA) – Movistar +46″
4) Chris Horner (USA) – Radioshack-Leopard – same time
5) Joaquim Rodriguez (SPA) – Katusha +2’33”
6) Domenico Pozzovivo (ITA) – Ag2r La Mondiale +2’44”
7) Ivan Basso (ITA) – Cannondale +2’55”
8) Thibaut Pinot (FRA) – FDJ +3’35”
9) Rafal Majka (POL) – Saxo-Tinkoff +3’46”
10) Daniel Moreno (SPA) – Katusha +3’56”
