Haimar Zubeldia confirmed his extreme consistency in the grand tours when he used today's time trial to move from 10th to 8th in the overall standings of the Tour de France. The result marks his fifth top 10 in the world's biggest bike race, making him one of the most decorated Tour riders of his generation.

Trek Factory Racing finished the 54-kilometer time trial, the sole race against the clock in this year’s Tour de France, with results that exceeded expectations. Markel Irizar, teammate extraordinaire, set a fast early time that held up to a ninth place on the stage, while Haimar Zubeldia blazed around the course, besting the two GC riders in front of him to move up into eighth overall. 

It was the 20th stage of the 21-day race, and the final race for the GC battle ahead of the flat, mostly parade-like run-in to Paris tomorrow. For Trek Factory Racing it was a buoyant ending in their last hard, important effort, and for Irizar his ninth place finish (+2'39") was a bit of a surprise.

“I was not expecting to do this well because of the crash yesterday; I really did not know how I would feel today," he said. "But I felt okay, no pain or anything from yesterday. Still I was very surprised to be the second best time when I finished. For me to be ninth in the last days of the Tour…that is a good result.

"Maybe the lack of pressure and not being super nervous helped me. There were two goals: It would be nice to be top 15th - but no one was thinking that I was going to be able to do that - and the other goal was to set fast split times for Haimar and these were sent to Alain [Gallopin, director] who was following him. I think that when Haimar was doing times close to what I did he was gaining confidence, and at the end he did a fantastic TT.  It was important, and I am happy to help him. To move up two spots on the last day is really good - it has boosted the entire team! We are all happy!”

“It’s nice to see a helper get such a good result," sports director Josu Larrazabal said. "In the three weeks Jens [Voigt], Markel [Irizar], Matthew [Busche] and Greggy [Rast] did an incredible job, many times they were not allowed to go in the breaks because they had to stay with Fränk and Haimar, so it’s special to see one of these guys get such a good result".

World Time Trial Champion Tony Martin (OPQS), the clear favorite to win the undulating race against the clock, proved quickest at each of the three time splits. No one would come close to unseating him and he easily won in a time of 1:06:21.

When the last ten starters pushed off and were on course the final fight for the overall standings began. After 19 punishing stages it all came down to the race of truth: no tactics, no drafting, no hiding - simply let the legs have the final say.

Vincenzo Nibali, under no pressure to lose yellow, cemented his overall victory with a fourth place on the day, and second and third overall going into the decisive TT also held their podium steps, albeit by swapping positions: Jean-Christophe Péraud (AG2R-La Mondiale) would move from third to second, and Thibaut Pinot (FDJ.fr) dropped from second to third.

Haimar Zubeldia needed a strong ride to hold off a possible challenge from Pierre Rolland (Europcar) who started the day 90 seconds behind in the overall. However, by the first intermediate split any worry of losing 10th GC was all but erased as he easily caught and passed Rolland. By the finish Zubeldia's effort would also move him two positions further, passing Team Belkin duo Bauke Mollema and Laurens Ten Dam to end in 8th place overall. His time was good enough for 21st place (+ 3'45").

“I felt super good in the TT," he said. " I pushed harder in the beginning because I felt good and I thought I could hold that pace the entire time. I caught Rolland before the first time split. Then I lost it a bit, but came back again.  I gave all I had in the legs in the last two kilometers.  I finished well in this Tour, and finally we are in the top 10. This is important for me and also for the team.”

“We can be happy tonight because Haimar moved into 8th and Fränk did a nice TT and kept the 12th place," Gallopin said. "It’s a pity that he lost 8 minutes in the cobblestones [stage five] otherwise we would have two guys in the top 10. He was not lucky on this stage.

"After the Dauphine Haimar was a little bit disappointed to lose 20 minutes the last day on the final mountain stage. But he went to the mountains for training after this with a plan, and he worked hard to come ready for the Tour and he deserves this.”

Trek Factory Racing director and team trainer Josu Larrazabal followed Zubeldia during the time trial, and afterward he explained how he used the technology of power data to devise a pacing strategy for Haimar in such a long and important time trial.

“We split the TT into different intervals: flat, easy climb, steep climb, and downhill," he said. "We know the power data from previous TT’s, more or less, and we can calculate the time he can do for each of these intervals by the power he can hold without going too deep. 

"So we prepare the pacing strategy and explain this to Haimar before the start. Then during the race we have to control with the time splits, and today we had a very good reference from Markel.  We asked to Haimar to be safe and stay within 30 seconds and one minute of Markel knowing that that would be enough at the end.”

Fränk Schleck congealed his 12th place overall with a solid 65th place (+6'22"). Unlike Zubeldia he had the pleasure of riding the final TT with no pressure to his overall standing.

“For the TT today I had no pressure, with no one on my heels [in GC]," he said. "So I had the chance to do this TT easy, at least mentally, not physically because a TT is always difficult, but I had no stress of losing anything today. It was a hard TT, very long, and it was all about pure power. I was super happy to when I heard that Haimar had moved into 8th overall - that’s great news for the team!”

Tomorrow is the ceremonious sprinters’ stage into Paris, and at last a day for Trek Factory Racing to sit back, enjoy, and reflect on their successful Tour after 20 days of harsh racing under stressful and often unforgiving conditions.