Annemiek van Vleuten wins women’s Olympic time trial
Annemiek van Vleuten wins women's Olympic time trial
Annemiek van Vleuten (Netherlands) has made up for her disappointment in the Tokyo Olympic road race by taking gold in Wednesday’s time trial. The two-time ITT world champion led at both checkpoints and completed the hilly 22.1 km circuit in a time of 30:13 (43.9 km/h average).
Switzerland’s Marlen Reusser took silver at 56 seconds behind, while ITT world champion Anna van der Breggen (Netherlands) claimed bronze a further six seconds back.
Julie Van De Velde (Belgium) set the early mark with a time of 34:24 but she was soon usurped by Anna Shackley (Great Britain) and then Karol-Ann Canuel (Canada). Canuel’s time of 33:08 would last just a few moments before Sarah Gigante (Australia) set a new best of 33:01.
Juliette Labous (France) and Ashleigh Moolman Pasio (South Africa) also lowered the time to beat, but it was with Amber Neben (USA) and Van Vleuten that the times really started to plummet.
Neben covered the course more than a minute faster than Moolman, and Van Vleuten went more than a minute faster again, with a race-winning 30:13.
Light rain fell at times throughout the event but appeared to do little to slow the riders. One of the pre-race favourites, Chloe Dygert (USA) struggled on the hilly course and finished well outside the medals.
The men’s time trial is set to get underway in a few hours’ time.
Olympic Games WE - ITT (Olympics) Fuji International Speedway → Fuji International Speedway
