Thursday 11 October - 12:45 - Elite Men's TT - 38.7 km

Live Report

Welcome to Cyclingnews' live coverage of the Elite Men's individual time trial, the last of the time trial events in the 2001 World Championships. The two lap race will proceed in three separate waves, with most of the top riders going in the final wave. In the first wave, the main interest is David McCann, the Irish TT champion who rides for the CCC-Mat team. He's a decent tester.

In the second wave, it will be very interesting to see how Roland Green, the Canadian World MTB Champion goes in this race. He is closely followed by Nathan O'Neill (Aus) and Piotr Przydzial (Pol) who should also put in good times.

All the interest is on the final wave, with riders such as Santiago Botero (Col), Levi Leipheimer (USA), Evgeni Petrov (Rus), David Millar (GBr), Jan Ullrich (Ger) and Serguei Gontchar (Ukr).

Weather: It rained last night and today it's grey skies and overcast. There's some wind off the Atlantic Ocean but the weather's expected to clear later on.

13:35 GMT
Portuguese rider Joaquim Adrego Andrade has gone out hard on his home territory, and leads Colombian Marlon Perez after both the 4.5 and 13.0 kilometre time checks. There are currently 11 riders on the parcours, with the first rider of the second wave (Roland Green) due to start his run at 13:50 GMT.

13:54 GMT
Andrade is still leading after one lap, with a respectable time of 27:15.04. This course is not built for speed, and contains several sharp climbs and many corners. An average of 45 km/h would give a time of 51:12, and that may not be too far off the mark once the quicker riders start.

14:04 GMT
Portuguese Joaquim Andrade will be at the top of the leaderboard of all the first wave riders, having led through every time check. The second wave has started now, with the first results due soon.

14:16 GMT
Andrade finishes in 55:31.86, 38 seconds faster than Marlon Perez. The second wave riders have already passed Andrade's times at 4.5 kilometres, with Russian elite rider Denis Bondarenko marginally quicker than Nathan O'Neill.

14:25 GMT
O'Neill goes through 13 kilometres in a scorching 18:36, nearly a minute quicker than Andrade at the same point. He is currently followed by Green at 24 seconds, but not all riders are through this check yet.

14:34 GMT
Nathan O'Neill (Aus) seems to be the best of the second wave, taking only 26:04 to complete one lap.

14:54 GMT
The final wave of riders has now started, with Croatian Martin Cotar leading off, followed by Canadian Eric Wohlberg.

15:15 GMT
Nathan O'Neill fades over the final 6 km, and has to settle for second place behind Santos Gonzalez (Spain) who has the new best time of 53:16.54, two seconds faster than O'Neill.

15:23 GMT
All riders have started now, and it's David Millar who has gone out the fastest, with 6:53.92 after 4.5 kilometres. He is followed by Botero, Gontchar, Ullrich and Leipheimer. This should be a close battle!

15:29 GMT
Millar caught his minute man after 13 kilometres, and is looking really good, riding smoothly. The air is heavy and humid, but the weather is holding.

15:36 GMT
On the first lap, it's all David Millar, as he finishes with 25:29.30, 4 seconds ahead of Colombian Santiago Botero. Levi Leipheimer is putting in a good rider, currently holding down third position, with Ullrich in fourth.

Defending champion Serguei Gontchar is only in 10th position at the halfway point, and it will take a massive effort for him to pull back the deficit.

15:46 GMT
Less than 30 seconds separate the top five riders after 26 kilometres. Millar still leads Botero and Leipheimer, and the leaderboard looks similar to the time trials in the Vuelta.

15:54 GMT
Second last check, and it's still Millar! He has seven seconds on Botero, and looks to become the new leader. He will have some minutes before the others come in, but his main challenger Ullrich is still off the pace.

15:58 GMT
Millar finishes in 51:56.29 (44.707 km/h) and will be the new World Time Trial Champion. He's had a remarkable last half of the season, winning stages in the Vuelta and holding the gold leader's jersey. In second place is Botero, who pulled back time on Millar in the finale, while Leipheimer looks to take third. Ullrich has yet to finish however.

16:03 GMT
But no! Jan Ullrich has caught Laszlo Bodrogi in the final kilometres, and absolutely storms home to finish in 51:49.99. Ullrich is the new World Time Trial Champion - an incredible ride over the last lap. Millar gets silver, and Botero the bronze.

Intermediate Standings

First Check - 4.5 km

1 David Millar (GBr)                  6.53.92
2 Santiago Botero Echeverry (Col)     6.58.49
3 Serguei Gontchar (Ukr)              7.04.85
4 Jan Ullrich (Ger)                   7.07.80
5 Levi Leipheimer (USA)               7.07.87

Second check - 13.0 km

1 David Millar (GBr)                 18.12.41
2 Santiago Botero Echeverry (Col)    18.18.49
3 Levi Leipheimer (USA)              18.23.91
4 Jan Ullrich (Ger)                  18.33.18
5 Nathan O'Neill (Aus)               18.36.12

Third check - 19.2 km

1 David Millar (GBr)                 25.29.30
2 Santiago Botero Echeverry (Col)    25.33.46
3 Levi Leipheimer (USA)              25.40.74
4 Jan Ullrich (Ger)                  25.46.34
5 Leif Hoste (Bel)                   25.52.78

Fourth check - 26.3 km

1 David Millar (GBr)                 33.11.27
2 Santiago Botero Echeverry (Col)    33.20.28
3 Levi Leipheimer (USA)              33.23.07
4 Jan Ullrich (Ger)                  33.30.16
5 Leif Hoste (Bel)                   33.38.28

Fifth check - 32.5 km

1 David Millar (GBr)                 44.41.42
2 Santiago Botero Echeverry (Col)    44.48.16
3 Jan Ullrich (Ger)                  44.51.56
4 Levi Leipheimer (USA)              44.49.83
5 Leif Hoste (Bel)                   45.26.18

Finish - 38.7 km

1 Jan Ullrich (Ger)                  51.49.99
2 David Millar (GBr)                 51.56.29
3 Santiago Botero Echeverry (Col)    52.01.72
4 Levi Leipheimer (USA)              52.14.69
5 Laszlo Bodrogi (Hun)               52.50.37

Results & report

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