Ullrich wins time trial, eyes road race gold
( 2001-10-12 09:53 ) (7 )

Germany's Jan Ullrich served notice he will be the man to beat in the world road race championship after winning the men's elite time trial event in a dazzling display of late-season form on Thursday.

Ullrich, runner-up in the Tour de France this year, came back from a relatively slow start to clock a winning time of 51 minutes 49.99 seconds around a 38.2-km course.

David Millar of Britain took the silver medal, just 6.3 seconds behind Ullrich on the line after being in the lead on every intermediate time check on the hilly circuit around Lisbon's Monsanto park.

Bronze went to Spanish-based Colombian rider Santiago Botero, a proven climber, in 52:01.72.

US rider Levy Leipheimer, fresh from a third-place finish in the Tour of Spain, was on course to take bronze after his first lap, but faded and finished fourth.

Last year's winner, Serhiy Honchar of Ukraine, was clearly not at home on a climber's circuit and finished 11th, almost two minutes adrift of Ullrich.

"I trained for the road race and this title wasn't entirely within my plans. But I'm delighted with today's result and this will stimulate my performance on Sunday," Ullrich said, referring to the 254-km road race at the weekend.

On Sunday, Ullrich will not have to face American Lance Armstrong, who comfortably resisted every one of his attacks in this year's Tour de France and has repeatedly put him in second spot since the German won the prestigious stage race in 1997.

Ullrich, who previously won the time trial gold in 1999, had only the fourth fastest time after completing the first of his two laps. He then gained some 16 seconds on Millar in the final downhill five kilometres.

"I knew I was 20 seconds down on the first lap but I think it was important not to have done it flat out. It was important to have time checks when I knew I was winning," Ullrich said.

The new champion drew advantage from riders starting the race at relatively short intervals of one minute.

"It was important to be able to see the rider in front, to see which side of the road he was riding on. It was good to have that as a reference, and it may explain why I did well," he said.

MILLAR DISAPPOINTED

Millar, who won the time trial prologue in this year's Tour of Spain and last year's Tour de France, had focussed his efforts on winning Thursday's race against the clock.

"I speeded up towards the end, so I don't know how I lost time. I guess Jan must have speeded up too. I am very disappointed," he said.

"I was very motivated, today was my race. On Sunday we (the British team) will all be working for Max," he added, referring to Italian-based British rider Max Sciandri.

Botero said he was pleased to have done well on a hilly course which he said suited him, but he was not optimistic about the road race.

"There's only two of us in the Colombian team, so it will be very difficult to control the race," he said.