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VARESE, Italy: Germany's Bert Grabsch upstaged a handful of more fancied contenders to claim a maiden time trial gold at the world road race championships on Thursday.
Grabsch, the national champion in the race against the clock, took full advantage of the absence of two-time defending champion Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland to finish in a winning time of 52 minutes 1 second.
Over a relatively flat 43.7-kilometre course which featured rolling sections, Canada's Svein Tuft, an early pacesetter, finished second to take silver with David Zabriskie of the United States claiming bronze.
While Tuft, a north-America based racer, claimed Canada's first world medal in the event since the famous Steve Bauer in 1984, Zabriskie upstaged gold medal favourite and compatriot Levi Leipheimer.
Leipheimer came into the race fresh from winning both time trials at the Tour of Spain but finished 1 minute 5 seconds behind Grabsch and nearly 14 seconds off the bronze medal pace.
Australian Michael Rogers, a three-time world champion between 2003-2005, also failed to live up to expectations.
He finished a disappointing 12th at 1:33 behind and was left rueing the small virus which hampered his training plans in recent weeks.
Cancellara, the champion in 2007 and 2006, decided not to compete after citing fatigue at the end of a season which he began with victories at Milan-San Remo and Tirreno-Adriatico and finished with the Olympic time trial gold.
The Beijing silver medallist, Gustav Larsson of Sweden, finished fifth just behind Leipheimer while Britain's David Millar was ninth at 1:25. - AFP/de
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