CYCLING

Villumsen Wins World Championship Time Trial

Linda Villumsen sport’s the UCI World Championship rainbow jersey on the podium in Richmond, Virginia today. Credit: Graham Watson.

New Zealand rider Linda Villumsen produced the perfect performance today to get her hands on the world championship rainbow jersey that has eluded her on so many occasions.

The 30 year old claimed the individual time trial at the UCI Road World Championships in Richmond, Virginia after finishing on the podium on five occasions in the last six years.

She is the first New Zealand cyclist to win an elite road world championship, after Jeremy Yates won the junior road race in 2000 and Rebecca Spence won the under-23 time trial in 2005.

Villumsen finished on the podium in five consecutive years from 2009 with two silver medals and three bronze.

She stormed around the 30km, two-lap circuit in Richmond, Virginia in 40:29.87 to win by 2.54 seconds from Anna van der Breggen (NED) and 5.26s to defending champion Lisa Brennauer (GER).

She was second fastest to van der Breggen at the first time check at 7km but six seconds clear at the end of the first lap. Villumsen extended that to nearly 14 seconds with 8kms remaining and had enough fuel in the tank to hold off the fast finishing van der Breggen.

“It was my best ride ever. I have nothing bad to say – I had a good team around me, the perfect knowledge over the radio, perfect legs and nothing really went wrong,” Villumsen said.

“It was perfect course for me – lots of corners, lots of rhythm changes and a little bit of wind and small climb.”

She was pleased with her lead-up preparations on the course which proved a key difference.

“We have been staying a few weeks together and I got to train really well on the time trial bike which helped me. I have gone out to do my own efforts as well and done whatever my coach Marco (Pinotti) has told me to do and it worked.

“We even had a day to do the course closed from traffic. The organisation here has been so good.”
American Kristin Armstrong, who edged Villumsen for the world title in 2009, set the early pace, taking advantage of the stillness in the early morning to post 40:50.45.

That time was not threatened until the final four riders turned up the heat, but they were all chasing the Kiwi in vain.

Villumsen will now turn her attention to the road race on the weekend before heading to check out the course for Rio, although she is not allowing herself to think about the Olympics yet.

“Right now I am just happy that I have qualified for Rio and over the moon to be wearing this rainbow jersey. It is just incredible. I may wear it for a bit – it smells a bit now. But once it is washed I might just wear it around for a bit. It looks great.”

Earlier Palmerston North’s Robert Stannard finished 21^st in the junior boys’ time trial in 40:15.34 just ahead of compatriot James Fouche from Auckland who was 24^th in 40:23.25.

Tomorrow’s attention turns to the elite men’s individual time trial with New Zealand represented by World Tour riders Sam Bewley and Jesse Sergent.

Results:
Individual time trial, Elite women, 30km: Linda Villumsen (NZL) 40:29.87, 1; Anna van der Breggen (NED) 40:32.41, 2; Lisa Brennauer (GER) 40:35.13, 3.
Junior men, 30km: Leo Appelt (GER) 37:45.01, 1; Adrien Costa (USA) 38:02.23, 2; Brandon McNulty (USA) 38:44.75, 3. Also: Robert Stannard (NZL) 40:15.34, 21; James Fouche (NZL) 40:23.25, 24.