Fabian Cancellara took advantage of calm winds to put down the fastest time of Stage 19 of the 2010 Tour de France, the Individual Time Trial.
Saxo Bank’s Cancellara, one of the first riders to start, turned in a time of 1:00:56, with HTC-Columbia’s Tony Martin 17 seconds behind.
Cancellara also won the Prologue, a much shorter time trial.
“I’m proud, happy and also really, really tired, Cancellara told LeTour.fr. “The Tour is long and there are always a lot of things going on. To start and finish with a win, that’s great.”
Riders who started early had a definite advantage, as a strong headwind picked up down the final portion of the route as the afternoon progressed. While this affected the stage outcome, it really didn’t affect overall times, as all the closest competitors started near one another.
