Stage Winner vs Stage Winner

Its stage 19 of the TDF, its an individual time trial and i am going to be boring and tip the favourite Fabian Cancellara to take the stage. He is a very strong, big bike rider and can generate great power, espically over this generally flat course they take today.

Riding against the clock the man is a pure steam train, he has won many national time trial jerseys not to mention junior, u-23 and world time trial honours so he knows how to ride alone and seems to have got better with age.

Cancellara proved he was in form by powering away from his rivals during this years Paris- Roubaix, some of which are over cobbled streets and further illustrated this by winnin the prologue of this years TDF(a short time trial stage, this years 8.9km) and taking the yellow jersey. He has been going so quick on occasions he was actually accused of having an electric motor on his bike, mental!

He is a big man so has not been pushing himself hard in the mountains and has had a rest day and a flat cycling day to recover from the Pyreenes to get himself ready for this 50km time trail.

His main rival will be the germam Martin who beat him in the TT of the tour du Suisse but he finished ten seconds behind Cancellara in the prologue and rode in better conditions(raining by the time Cancellara went out) so i fully expect Cancellara to increase the gap on him, i would however be worried about Contador but i think the course is too flat for him to challenge the power of Cancellara and another person to maybe worry about would be Wiggins, i tipped him for a top three finish but he has been a big disappointment, he says he has been saving himself for the TT and in the past was an Olmypic time trial champion so should be considered a danger.

I'll leave it up to Cancellaras manager(after the prologue) to fully explain his skill set, i believe the price to be fair so am staking it a ten:

"Ah, it’s Fabian. He’s special. He’s an amazing rider. His style is pure power; he rocks around a little but that’s how he gets the power down. I know the figures that he can produce (in wattage) and I saw again today a man who was at the top of his form. It’s beautiful to watch".