Four time world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara rounded out the podium at the UCI Road Championships Men’s Time Trial today. Giving it everything he had, Cancellara missed the silver medal by a slender 2-second margin to Bradley Wiggins of Great Britain. Tony Martin (Germany) blew the competition apart in an awe-inspiring performance.

“I did everything I could,” Cancellara said after the race when evaluating on the RadioShack-Leopard website. “I was relaxed and confident this morning and also in the race. I pushed hard but I missed just a bit. I lost contact with my car early in the race so I had no information about the time gaps. So I was really racing against the clock and not against someone else. I knew Tony and Bradley were very well suited to this course, more than myself. I don’t feel like I lost anything today – I feel like I earned a really nice medal.”

The 57.9km parcours was perfect for the strong power riders with only a handful of technical sections and a small bump at the beginning with the rest of the course flat and exposed. 

Cancellara remains the only rider to hold four world time trial championships, but that might soon change if Martin continues his impressive performances. Cancellara led at the first intermediate check point, but Martin started picking up steam as the course went on, taking the best time at the second and third intervals, then earning the win by 46-seconds to Wiggins with a top time of 1:05:36. Two seconds separated Wiggins and Cancellara at 1:06:22 and 1:06:24 respectively.