Cancellara regains Vuelta lead after blasting through 30km TT.

Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) proved he’s on track to add another gold medal to his growing collection with another superb time trial victory Saturday in the rain in Valencia. With the world championships on home roads less than three weeks away, the big Swiss time machine slogged through a rain-slickened course to claim his second win in a week at the Vuelta a España and regain the golden race leader’s jersey.

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Results

Vuelta 2009 – Stage 7: Cancellara beats the clock, once again.

Photo: Graham Watson

Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) proved he’s on track to add another gold medal to his growing collection with another superb time trial victory Saturday in the rain in Valencia.

With the world championships on home roads less than three weeks away, the big Swiss time machine slogged through a rain-slickened course to claim his second win in a week at the Vuelta a España and regain the golden race leader’s jersey.

“The conditions were very difficult,” Cancellara said at the line. “I tried to go as fast as Formula 1, but the engine I have is my legs. It was a good test for me, a great race.”

Cancellara handily defeated two riders he’ll be facing in Mendrisio – Garmin-Slipstream’s time trial specialist David Millar and reigning time trial world champion Bert Grabsch (Columbia-HTC).

Vuelta 2009 – Stage 7: Millar was in the hot seat until Spartacus blasted through to the finish more than half-a-minute faster.

Photo: Graham Watson

First Grabsch, then Millar each set the fastest time and it looked like Millar might be in with a chance when Cancellara started cautiously and then turned on the gas against strong headwinds when he carved out his winning, 32-second difference to Millar.

“I’ve already fallen twice in this Vuelta and a third would be too much, so I didn’t take any risks until I got to the open road with headwinds,” Cancellara said. “It’s great to be back in the leader’s jersey, but I think tomorrow it’s finished for me and someone else will take the jersey. I am not a climber and I here to help my teammates and to prepare for the worlds.”

Cancellara admitted that his growing form might induce him to try to win both gold medals at the worlds later this month. His earlier focus on the road race seems to be softening as his time trial performances give him encouragement he might be up to the task of racing both.

“My objective number 1 is the road race in Mendrisio and I was thinking about possibly not racing the time trial. But my form is improving and I have the motivation to try to win both titles,” he said. “The road race is the goal because it’s in my home country, in front of my fans, but I believe I am strong enough and I have a good mentality to try to win both.”

Vuelta 2009 – Stage 7: Grabsch takes third, at 36 seconds.

Photo: Graham Watson

No one’s ever won both the road race and time trial titles at the same world championships.

Cancellara’s victory meant another bittersweet moment for Garmin-Slipstream. Millar revealed he’s on excellent form and came closest to knocking off Cancellara, setting an early fast time that stood for second in the stage at 32 seconds slower.

It’s the second consecutive second place for Garmin, which has been nibbling at the edge of a breakthrough grand tour stage victory all season long.

Garmin-Slipstream will take heart from the excellent ride by Tom Danielson, who stopped the clock at 50 seconds off the pace for seventh. Danielson, twice in the top 10 at the Vuelta, moved up to eighth at 1:19 back.

GC battle heats up
Cancellara’s victory was the closing act of the first week of racing in what’s been an interesting, if sprinter-dominated Vuelta so far.

Cancellara has won both time trials and sprinters ruled the roost for the remainder of the week, with Columbia-HTC taking three stage wins, book-ended by Gerard Ciolek and Borut Bozic, with Greg Henderson and two with André Greipel, who forfeited the leader’s jersey Saturday and sank to 27th at 2:19 back.

The climbers move center-stage in Sunday’s 204.7km stage from Alzira to Alto de Aitana, the first of five summit finishes and the opening salvo of the real battle for the overall crown.

The “virtual GC” is still very tight, with Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) well-positioned in sixth at 1:12 back.

Vuelta 2009 – Stage 7: Evans rounded out the top 10 at 1:02.

Photo: Graham Watson

Right behind him are Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) in seventh at 1:14, Danielson in eighth at 1:19, Samuel Sánchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) in ninth at 1:20, Ivan Basso (Liquigas) in 17th at 1:52 back and Robert Gesink (Rabobank) in 19th at 1:5 7 – all separated by less than one minute.

“I am pretty satisfied with the time trial today. It was a course for specialists … and although I lost some seconds to my rivals, like Evans, Valverde and Sanchez, the differences are minimal,” Basso said. “These next two stages feature hard climbs and will be useful to try to recover some lost time. You don’t want to give up more time. My experience tells me that in a three-week tour you have to have patience. From here to Madrid, there will be plenty of climbs where I can take back time to try to take the golden jersey.”

Most observers points to Valverde and Basso as the two riders who look strongest so far. Valverde, twice a Vuelta podium-finisher, is poised to win his first grand tour if he can keep it together for three weeks and fend off Basso and the others.

“I believe the seconds won or lost today will have little importance from tomorrow on if we consider the fact that tomorrow is very hard to Aitana,” Valverde said. “I’ve had a good Vuelta up to now. I went through the first stages without any important crashes and didn’t lose any time. I hope now that we are arriving to the mountains, which are my favored terrain, the luck will stay with me.”

Vuelta 2009 – Stage 7: Basso’s 36th place (at 1:43) may not hurt him too badly when the road tips upward.

Photo: Graham Watson

Others remain an enigma right now, including Astana’s Haimar Zubeldia and Alexander Vinokourov (12th and 14th, respectively), grand tour rookie Jakob Fuglsang (21st at 2:03), and Spanish mountain goats Ezequel Mosquera and José Angel Gómez Marchante (41st and 44th, respectively).

“Starting tomorrow I hope to be able to recover some of the lost time beginning with the summit at Aitana,” said Mosquera, fourth and fifth in past two editions of the Vuelta. “Not only will the summit finish make it hard, but it’s up and down all day, and that will prove costly. It’s the first mountaintop finish of the Vuelta, so I can play the cards face up.”

The Schleck brothers (Andy at 3:10 and Frank at 3:15 back) could vault back into contention, but seem to be living up to their promise of riding the Vuelta to gain fitness for the world championships and the Giro di Lombardia.

The Aitana summit is the first of five mountain-top finishes (Monday’s Xorret de Catí isn’t necessarily at the top of the climb, but organizers are calling it a summit finish anyway) spread over next seven stages.

Anyone who emerges from the Sierra de la Pandera finale in stage 14 with a commanding lead should be able to coast all the way to Madrid on cruise control.