UCI Road World Championships 2014: Men's Elite Individual Time Trial

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January 1 - September 28, Ponferrada, Ponferrada, Road - CDM

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Welcome to live coverage of the Elite men's individual time trial at the World Championships.

Welcome to the men's elite time trial. The first few riders have rolled down the start ramp. Nobody has completed the course, but a number of riders have gone through the first time check.

The big contenders are not due to go off for some time, with defending champion Tony Martin set to hit the road at 15:36 local time.

Bradley Wiggins will be the penultimate rider to go today, as he looks to take his first victory in the event. Ealier today, he said that he plans to take on the hour challenge next season.

Pliuschin continues to put himself at the top of the standings, he's gone through the second check in a time of 27:44.85, extending his lead over Ludvigsson to 32 seconds. It looks like he will set the early benchmark today.

Four-time Lithuanian time trial champion Gatis Smukulis is underway as we approach some of the riders who could cause an upset today. Former Estonian champion Tanel Kangert is also out on course. After setting an average time at the first split, he is closing the gap to Pliuschin. With pacing key on this course, he could be playing this one very well.

Of course we had the elite women's time trial yesterday. German champion Lisa Brennauer put in an excellent performance to take her first title. You can read the full report here.

The big news today is that Giant-Shimano will become Giant-Alpecin next season, as the team secure a four-year deal with the German shampoo manufacturer. Needless to say, Marcel Kittel is happy to make use of the free hair products. You can read the full news here.

Kangert has gone through the second checkpoint and he's closed the gap on Pliuschin once again. 11 seconds separate the two riders, Kangert may be about to rain on Pluischin's parade.

Ludvigsson is the first rider to cross the finish line. He was third to start, so he has passed two riders out on course. His time is 59:58.82

Ludvigsson's time at the top of the standings doesn't last very long. Pliuschin is the third rider to finish and goes right to the head of the leaderboard. His time of 59:13.42 is 45 seconds quicker than Ludvigsson.

Kangert completes his ride and does indeed stick himself in the hotseat. With a negative opening split, he has come back to beat Pliuschin's time by 15 seconds.

Nelson Oliveira is flying out on course. The Portuguese rider has gone through the second check in a fastest time of 42:34.06. As we saw with Kangert and Pliuschin, going out fast is not nescessarily a good thing.

Markel Irizar is off the ramp. Despite being 34, this is his first time riding the World Championships at elite level.

We mentioned Bradley Wiggins earlier as one of the favourites today. As British champion he's been riding a personalised Pinarello Bolide. You can take a look at the steed he used to win the Tour of Britain's time trial.

Artem Ovechkin now holds the new fastest time at the finish, he beat Kangert by 14 seconds. It's been musical chairs in the hotseats, how long can Ovenchkin stay in his.

Oliveira continues to post fastest times. He is now quickest at the third and final check with a time of 42:34.06. Can he hold this pace to the finish?

We asked the question and he answered. Oliviera goes finishes 56.64 seconds up on Ovechkin with a time of 57:47.15

It's not just Bradley Wiggins putting his name forward to take on the Hour Record. After Jens Voigt so spectacularly beat it, the challengers are all coming forward. Taylor Phinney has said that he may attempt is as a way to come back to racing.

Canadian champion Svein Tuft is off. We've got 21 finishers at the moment, with Oliveira still on top of the standings.

Rasmus Quaade crashes not long after he leaves the start ramp.

Anton Vorobyev posts the fastest time at the first check, he's 8 seconds up on Oliveira.

Sylvain Chavanel leaves the start ramp. He's been in strong form recently and is probably the first real contender for a medal that we've seen today.

We're getting to the nitty gritty now, with only ten riders still to start. Next up is Alex Dowsett.

Commonwealth champion Alex Dowsett looking comfortable. The GPS shows him as 6 seconds up on Oliveira in the opening part of the course.

It's getting to the point end now, Belgian champ Kristoff Vandewalle is now fastest at the first check with a time of 13:47.84. Oliveira still hold the quickest time at the finish, and his teammate Tiago Machado comes home in second, 30 seconds behind him.

Adriano Malori is off and we've only got three more riders to come. Malori has had a great year with time trial victories at the Vuelta, San Luis and Tirreno-Adriatico.

Sylvain Chavanel is through the first check point and he is the latest to go fastest at this point. He is 12 seconds quicker than Vandewalle with his time of 13:35.12.

Wiggins is now on the start ramp, can he beat Tony Martin today?

Tejay van Garderen is closing in on the first check, where will he be?

Tony Martin is on course and all of our riders are under way.

Van Garderen goes through the first check in 11th, he's 28.05 behind Chavanel. We've seen with the earlier riders that a slow start can be a good thing, but that's a lot of time to make up.

Quaad has gone through the first check. He had a terrible start to his time trial when he came off in the first kilometre. He's coming back slowly and is 17 second back on Vorobyev who is quickest at that point.

2012 bronze medallist Vasil Kiryienka goes through the first check in third, six seconds down.

The main contenders are now beginning to go through the second check point. Once again, Sylvain Chavanel puts himself at the top with a time of 27:05.49, 19 seconds ahead of the next best rider Vorobyev - who has just gone second fastest at the finish.

Vorobyev looks like he's really dug deep for that time. He collapses off his bike almost right after the finish.

We;re just waiting for Wiggins and Martin now to go through that first check point.

Wiggins is going for the fast start. He sets the quickest time, just under a second quicker than Chavanel.

Meanwhile at the second check piont, his teammate Alex Dowsett continues to lose time to Chavanel. He's down 29 seconds on the Frenchman.

Martin has now gone through that first check and goes four seconds quicker than Wiggins.

So with all the riders through the first check our fastest men are Martin, 13:30.05, Wiggins, +4.04, and Chavanel, +5.07.

After setting the sixth fastest time at the first check, Kiryienka has gone through in sixth. His time of 27:00.87 is 4.62 seconds quicker than Chavanel. Is he on for another bronze medal, or maybe more?

Times are tumbling at the second check. Rohan Dennis is on a flyer and goes 10 seconds quicker than Kiryienka.

At the finish, our top three remain the same with Oliveira leading the way.

Andrew Talansky crosses the finish line and goes fifth fastest with a time of 58:46.40. The US will be hoping that Tejay van Garderen can get a little closer to that top spot. Of course, they are missing Taylor Phinney this year after he broke his leg at the US national championships.

Wiggins goes quickest through the second check, six seconds faster than Dennis. We await Tony Martin.

Wiggins' teammate Cataldo finishes his day in 15th place.

Tony Martin has lost time to Wiggins at the second check he is two seconds back on the Sky rider.

There is still a long way to go for the two riders, but this could be a very close one. Can Tony Martin win his fourth or will Wiggins take his first?

Castroviejo finishes with the third fastest time but Oliveira is still clinging onto the top spot. We hope they're comfortable, because he's been there for some time.

After setting very quick time in the first two checks, it looks like Sylvain Chavanel is beginning to fade. The Frenchman goes through the final check with the third fastest time, almost 30 seconds down.

A quick round-up now that we've had all the riders through the second check point.

Kiryienka looks set to post the fastest time so far. He goes through the final check 16 seconds up on Oliveira with a time of 42:17.19

Quaade finally crosses the line with the fifth fastest time. He's got a few scrapes after crashing in the opening kilometre. What could he have done if he hadn't crash?

Dennis is another rider who looks like he might have come out of the gates a bit too quickly. He's second at the final check and four seconds down on Kiryienka.

Only 11 riders till to finish today as Bodnar goes eighth quickest. It's getting very tense out there.

Chavanel finishes and goes ninth. He went out way too quickly and is really suffering in this final stretch. He probably won't be the last rider to do that today.

Bradley Wiggins is through the final check and has set the fastest time there. He's on a custom bike today, after winning the national championships earlier this year. Could this be the bike that takes him to victory?

Tony Martin continues to lose time to Wiggins, he's now 9 seconds back.

GPS shows that Martin has lost yet more time again to Wiggins. The gap between the pair is 21 seconds. Can he bring this back?

Dumoulin is really going for it on the descent. He went through the last check 38 seconds down and in fifth place. A good performance so far from the Dutch rider.

Bad news for van Garderen, as he's caught by Barta in the finishing straight. Barta goes third while van Garderen languishes down in 31st. A bad day for the American.

Vasil Kiryienka finally beats Nelson Oliveira and by some margin, he is 33 seconds up.

Only five left to finish, we'll have a new world champion soon.

Dennis cracked in that final section of the course and he slots into second, nine seconds back on Kiryienka.

It looks like Dumoulin has taken some time back on the descent and he's two seconds up on Kiryienka and could be on for a medal here.

Malori stops the clock with the third fastest time.

Dumoulin sprints for the line and he beats Kiryienka by seven seconds. He is certain of a medal, most likely bronze.

Just Wiggins and Martin left and the fight for the rainbow jersey. Who will win?

Wiggins blasts home and beats Dumoulin by 40 seconds. Just Martin left. 

Wiggins' time was 56:25.52, what can Martin do?

Martin in the finishing stretch

Martin is second, Wiggins is world champion

Here is the top 10, as Wiggins becomes only the second Britain to take gold in the time trial

Wiggins looks almost shell-shocked when he realises that he's won. All he can manage is a thumbs up. He beat Martin by 26 seconds.

Dumoulin's ride was a stonker too. He's really come of age this year and was aiming for bronze today and he delivered. On a day where his team named a new sponsor, it's has been a good one all around for him.

With Tony Martin taking silver today, we are still waiting for a rider to take four consecutive titles.

Wiggins is looking unusually emotional in the post race interview.

As we said, Wiggins was looking very emotional at the finish there. Here is what he said

There will be no racing tomorrow, as the road race course will be open for the riders to recce it. The racing begins again on Friday with the women's road race on Saturday and the men's on Sunday.

That is all from us today. You can find the full results, gallery and reportfrom today's action here.

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