The 35-year-old champion stormed to victory, covering the 27.8km course in just 34 minutes and 25 seconds. Van Vleuten was the only one to get above the 48kph mark. That being said, the day didn’t start off well for the Dutch superstar, as she fainted during the doping control just hours before the race.
“That was not a great start to the day. Fortunately, the check was at 8 am and I still had enough time to clear my head,” van Vleuten told the Dutch broadcaster NOS. “I started like a rocket and was completely dead at the finish. There are not too many times someone has won the time trial world championships twice. It added a bit of pressure, but I also felt the pressure last year, so it was no different.”
“The hard thing about this time trial was that it was uphill, but in the descent you didn’t have recovery so you also needed to push. So actually your legs are screaming to stop pedalling in the descents, but you have to keep on going, otherwise you lose time. First I am going to enjoy this one, but not for too long because Saturday is a beautiful course and I really look forward to racing on it with our team.”
Van der Breggen put out a stunning performance in yesterday’s race and was the only one who finished within a minute of the winner. The current European champion Ellen van Dijk finished with a time that was 1 minute and 28 seconds slower than that of van Vleuten.
Results of the 2018 UCI Road World Championships women’s time trial, Hall-Wattens to Innsbruck (27.8 km)
1 Annemiek van Vleuten (NED) 35:25
2 Anna van der Breggen (NED) + 28s
3 Ellen van Dijk (NED) + 1:25
4 Leah Kirchmann (CAN) + 1:26
5 Leah Thomas (CAN) + 1:32
6 Lucinda Brand (NED) + 1:42
7 Amber Leone Neben (USA) + 1:47
8 Karol-Ann Canuel (CAN) + 2:15
9 Elisa Longo Borghini (ITA) + 2:17
10 Tayler Wiles (NED) + 2:31
