Flakemore claims U23 time trial world title for Australia

Australia scored a second top success in a matter of hours in the World Championships on Monday as Tasmanian Campbell Flakemore edged out Ireland’s Ryan Mullan by less than half a second to claim gold in the men’s under-23 time trial.

Flakemore’s victory followed hard on the heels of a triumph for compatriot and fellow-Tasmanian Macey Stewart this morning in the junior women’s event. Their double triumph, reinforced by Anna-Leeza Hull’s bronze behind Stewart, sets Australia clearly at the top of the World Championships medal table from the first day of national racing events.

Flakemore’s triumph continues a superb year for the 22-year-old from Hobart, too, already victorious in the Tour de L’Avenir prologue, and more than makes up for his near-miss of fourth in the same time trial event last year.

The look of disappointment on Ryan Mullen’s face, as Flakemore’s time flashed up on the leaderboard said how hard it must have been for the Irishman to take such a painfully close defeat.

After clocking the fastest time in all of the checkpoints on the rain-lashed, undulating 36.1 kilometre course, the Irish road and TT champion looked set to claim the first gold (and indeed medal of any colour) for his country since Mark Scanlon won the Men’s junior Road-Race back in 1998.

But it was not to be, as Flakemore, 20 seconds back at the two intermediate checkpoints, gave it everything in the final, technical third of the course - apart from a tricky descent - to roar home for the narrowest of victories.

“I knew in the first two time checks that I was down on Ryan, I knew I had to leave a lot in the tank for the last five kilometres,” Flakemore said afterwards, “and I think I got a lot back.

“I took it really easy on the last descent, I didn’t want to crash, I had seen the junior girls go through it and it didn’t look so bad, then after that I hauled it to the finish.”

Visibly exhausted as he slumped in the winner’s chair, his face grimacing with pain, his fourth place last year, Flakemore said, had spurred him on, “and it’s my last U23 year too. I really wanted it today.”

“It’s a fantastic start for Australia - and for Tasmania,” he said.

Bronze went to Stefan Kueng of Switzerland. The last rider to start, the European road race and time trial champion finished nine seconds behind Flakemore and in the process squeezed out Rafael Reis of Portugal - for over an hour the rider with the best time - from third place.

Turkey’s Amet Orken had set the first time to beat of 48:00, before South African road champion Louis Meintjes, fresh off from completing the Vuelta with MTN-Qhubeka, then smashed the previous best to claim a notable top result of 44:38.

However, Portugal’s Reis, a second year pro with a Portuguese squad, Banco BIC, forged ahead through the driving rain to claim the best time ahead of Meintjes by a clear 29 second margin. With 40 riders of the 63 starters left to finish, it was more than uncertain, though, how long the 22-year-old’s time would stay at the top of the leaderboard.

As it turned out, Reis time endured as provisional best for nearly an hour, as rider after rider failed to reach the top three positions.

Mullen, finally, managed to dislodge the Portuguese pro from the top spot by a very respectable margin of 19 seconds, and the Irishman’s effort seemed all but certain to net him the gold. Twelve minutes after Mullen had crossed the line, though, Flakemore’s crossed the line 0.48 seconds faster - his blisteringly fast final third of the time trial just enough to give Australia (and Tasmania) their second triumph of the day.

Full Results

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#Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Campbell Flakemore (Australia)0:43:49.94
2Ryan Mullen (Ireland)0:00:00.48
3Stefan Kueng (Switzerland)0:00:09.22
4Rafael Ferreira Reis (Portugal)0:00:19.32
5Maximilian Schachmann (Germany)0:00:37.84
6Jonathan Dibben (Great Britain)0:00:38.28
7Andreas Vangstad (Norway)0:00:44.88
8Louis Meintjes (South Africa)0:00:48.36
9Frederik Frison (Belgium)0:01:07.22
10James Oram (New Zealand)0:01:09.57
11Lukas Postlberger (Austria)0:01:25.43
12Nils Politt (Germany)0:01:27.68
13Viktor Manakov (Russian Federation)0:01:28.62
14Steven Lammertink (Netherlands)0:01:38.56
15Thery Schir (Switzerland)0:01:44.31
16Soren Kragh Andersen (Denmark)0:01:44.42
17Alex Kirsch (Luxembourg)0:01:45.57
18Juan Camacho Del Fresno (Spain)0:01:46.03
19Davide Martinelli (Italy)0:01:55.32
20Alexander Evtushenko (Russian Federation)0:01:55.33
21Mario Gonzalez Salas (Spain)0:01:55.74
22Jan Marcus Faaglum Karlsson (Sweden)0:01:57.38
23Robin Carpenter (United States Of America)0:01:57.53
24Scott Davies (Great Britain)0:02:01.65
25Ignacio Prado (Mexico)0:02:02.28
26Dion Smith (New Zealand)0:02:05.42
27Jose Luis Rodriguez (Chile)0:02:06.43
28Willem Jakobus Smit (South Africa)0:02:09.83
29Oleg Zemlyakov (Kazakhstan)0:02:10.22
30Viktor Okishev (Kazakhstan)0:02:17.72
31Ruben Pols (Belgium)0:02:23.19
32Tom Bohli (Switzerland)0:02:24.75
33Marlen Zmorka (Ukraine)0:02:27.91
34Gregor Muhlberger (Austria)0:02:36.66
35Taylor Eisenhart (United States Of America)0:02:37.39
36Miguel Angel Lopez (Colombia)0:02:37.49
37Przemyslaw Kasperkiewicz (Poland)0:02:37.62
38Ioannis Spanopoulos (Greece)0:02:40.64
39Carlos Ramirez (Colombia)0:02:56.88
40Remi Cavagna (France)0:02:58.82
41Seid Lizde (Italy)0:03:08.64
42Facundo Lezica (Argentina)0:03:12.95
43Casper Von Folsach (Denmark)0:03:22.33
44Bruno Maltar (Croatia)0:03:31.11
45David Per (Slovenia)0:03:33.48
46Bruno Armirail (France)0:03:54.61
47Hugo Angel Velazquez (Argentina)0:04:03.42
48Anasse Ait El Abdia (Morocco)0:04:06.57
49Ahmet Orken (Turkey)0:04:10.13
50Abderrahmane Mansouri (Algeria)0:04:34.30
51Valens Ndayisenga (Rwanda)0:04:38.33
52Dmitriy Rive (Kazakhstan)0:04:43.94
53Salaheddine Mraouni (Morocco)0:04:47.71
54Pontus Kastemyr (Sweden)0:04:48.16
55Tural Isgandarov (Azerbaijan)0:04:59.52
56Adil Barbari (Algeria)0:05:01.17
57Jean Bosco Nsengimana (Rwanda)0:05:04.25
58Feritcan Samli (Turkey)0:05:14.91
59Pablo Cruz (Honduras)0:06:01.42
60Szabolcs Sebestyen (Romania)0:06:29.81
61Shern Mun Benedict Lee (Singapore)0:07:21.47
62Diego Hossfeldt (Qatar)0:07:41.77
63Victor Cartin (Republic of Moldova)0:09:56.68

 

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Alasdair Fotheringham

Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The IndependentThe GuardianProCycling, The Express and Reuters.

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