Nimke hands Germany gold #2, Phinney silver

By Gerry McManus in Pruszkow, Poland

Stefan Nimke put in a storming ride to win gold in the Men's Kilometre time trial on Friday evening. Nimke's time of 1:00.666 was nearly a second faster than American Taylor Phinney who took his second medal of the championships. Nimke's first lap was only twelfth fastest but he put in a blistering second lap and then held on to win a second sprint gold medal for Germany.

Yondi Smidt (Netherlands) had been the early leader on the board until Michael Seidenbecher (Germany) sliced one 1/1000th off his time. Next to top the table was Miao Zhang (China) who went 5/100ths better at 1:03.427. Then along came Nimke and he destroyed everything on the board. Nimke's time left a huge challenge for young Phinney who produced the second fastest time of 1:01.611.

Mohd Rizal Tisin put in a great time of 1:01.658 to win bronze for Malaysia.

"I was very surprised to win by such a big margin," said Nimke. "I did the same in the Olympics in 2004 and every one was congratulating me and then I was overtaken on the leader board so I was very nervous this time. My morale was very good when we won the bronze medal in the team sprint here. My plan was to put in a good first lap so that I would not be too far behind but I know that my strength is always in the final 250m."