The Fastest Grand Tours Time Trial in History
After Chris Boardman broke the hour record for the first time, Luc Leblanc remarked that if Boardman could break it, half of the pro peloton could. In his first TdF, Boardman caught his minute-man, Leblanc, over a 7.1 km course and set the fastest ever Tour stage in the process.
Rik Verbrugghe holds the record for the fasest ever stage in a grand tour. 58.874 km/h over the 7.6 km prologue course from the 2001 Giro d'Italia. Mario Cipollini holds the fastest road stage (48.521 km/h) from the 1997 edition and Alex Zülle holds the fastest time trial stage (53.771 km/h stage 15) from the 1998 edition.
The fastest ever Vuelta a España stage is held by Rubén Plaza. Plaza won the 39 km stage 20 time trial in 2005 at a speed of 56.22 km/h. This makes it the fastest ever non-prologue stage of a Grand Tour. Igor González de Galdeano holds the record for the fastest road stage. 2001 Vuelta stage 9, 179 km @ 55.176 km/h.
- Fastest Stage
Mario Cipollini 50,355 km/h Laval - Blois (194,5 km) 1999
Pablo Lastras 49,938 km/h Bordeaux - Saint-Maixent l’Ecole (203,5 km) 2003
Johan Bruyneel 49,417 km/h Evreux - Amiens (158 km) 1993
- Fastest Time Trial longer than 20 km
Greg LeMond 54,545 km/h Versailles - Paris (24,5 km) 1989
David Millar 54,361 km/h Pornic - Nantes (49 km) 2003
- Fastest Prologue
Chris Boardman 55,152 km/h Lille - Euralille (7,2 km) 1994
Chris Boardman 54,193 km/h Dublin (5,6 km) 1998
Fabian Cancellara 53,660 km/h Londres (7,9 km) 2007
- Fastest Team Time Trial
Discovery Channel Team 57,320 km/h Tours - Blois (67,5 km) 2005
Gewiss - Ballan 54,930 km/h Mayenne - Alençon (67 km) 1995
Carrera 54,610 km/h Berlin (40,5 km) 1987
Read more about this topic: Individual Time Trial
Famous quotes containing the words fastest, grand, time, trial and/or history:
“The fastest foot climbs to the top first.”
—Chinese proverb.
“Unpretending mediocrity is good, and genius is glorious; but a weak flavor of genius in an essentially common person is detestable. It spoils the grand neutrality of a commonplace character, as the rinsings of an unwashed wine-glass spoil a draught of fair water.”
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (18091894)
“It is time that the Protestant Church, the Church of the Son, should be one again with the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of the Father. It is time that man shall cease, first to live in the flesh, with joy, and then, unsatisfied, to renounce and to mortify the flesh.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“You may talk about Free Love, if you please, but we are to have the right to vote. To-day we are fined, imprisoned, and hanged, without a jury trial by our peers. You shall not cheat us by getting us off to talk about something else. When we get the suffrage, then you may taunt us with anything you please, and we will then talk about it as long as you please.”
—Lucy Stone (18181893)
“One classic American landscape haunts all of American literature. It is a picture of Eden, perceived at the instant of history when corruption has just begun to set in. The serpent has shown his scaly head in the undergrowth. The apple gleams on the tree. The old drama of the Fall is ready to start all over again.”
—Jonathan Raban (b. 1942)