My Mum has a serious crush on Fabian Cancellara.

It started last year in Mendrisio, when she saw him win his third world time trial championship in his home country. References to the amazing pistons that are his legs were bandied about repeatedly.

Any patriotism for her daughter’s Australian team was ruthlessly cast aside, and three days later she was shamelessly barracking for him in the road race over our Cadel.

Later in the year, when the Australian Institute of Sport ran an elite women’s time trial camp in Geelong over the 2010 world championships course, we watched a video of the same ride by Cancellara.

National coach, Martin Barras (a Quebecois, so not the shy, retiring type) used more scientific and yet base expletives when professing his admiration for Fabian’s style.

Strong? Undoubtable. Fast? Si. Technically fearless? Vero. Pistons indeed.

Before the 2010 Tour de France, Cancellara had been implicated in a scandalous allegation: that he had a motor in his bike during his victories in the iconic spring classics, Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.

He had won both races, a week apart, in spectacular style. Soaring away from competitors (including former Paris-Roubaix winner and World Champion, Tom Boonen), making them look tired and amateur.

Of course, Fabian responded to this ‘motorised doping’ allegation by explaining that his motor was his body (hey, my mum was happy to testify in court for him!) he totally denied the laughable accusation, and seemed genuinely amused by the idea.

These past three weeks in July were relatively ‘quiet’ for Cancellara. There were none of the remarkable feats of years past – recall the destruction that he and Jens Voigts imparted onto the peloton, shredding contender’s hopes to bits on consecutive days in the mountains.

Their team captain Carlos Sastre (now riding with Cervélo Test Team), went on to win his first Tour by floating up Alpe d’Huez. Commentators waxed lyrical about the sheer will of the ‘perfect domestique’ that was the Swiss machine.

So, as this year’s stage 19 time trial loomed, and we hadn’t seen much of Fabian’s slave driving, wagers were made. Would he win? By how much?

Most spectators were far more interested in waiting for the maillot jaune outcome, with only eight seconds separating the top two riders it was going to be fascinating. Schleck rode well, and Contador had a mediocre day (for him) to make it a very tense battle.

But Cancellara had started early, with relatively less fanfare, and averaged an extraordinary 51kph. For an hour.

A few classy riders managed to get close – the un-German sounding German, Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia) rode the time trial of his life to finish a close second, while his teammate and 2008 World Champion, Bert Grabsch, with thighs the size of the Commerzbank Tower was third.

Other tour time trial specialists, previously so formidable on these decisive stages, were left flagging. Armstrong, Vinokourov, Wiggins, Cadel Evans and Levi Leipheimer, all former time trial stage winners, were at best, more than three minutes behind Cancellara.

(How embarrassing, only capable of riding 50km at 47kph for after a 3 week tour! Shame!)

It begs the question: how, in an era where we are seeing less extraordinary performances than in the past, is a non-machine man capable of such a feat?

He has the same bike as Contador and Schleck. The same wheels as dozens of other riders, and no motor in the bottom bracket. (Truly, they were scanning bikes randomly at the start of each stage, and his bike was scanned 15 times).

He has shown time and again, that he is a World Class one-day performer. He has had countless victories in Spring Classics, World and Olympic time trials and road races, often with late daring attacks.

It’s obvious he is a true specialist. He understands his body, and has perfected the art of using his best attributes to beat the best in the world. Sounds like a machine to me.