Pooley too quick for competition

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Great Britain's Emma Pooley has finally won her first road title, with a decisive victory in the women's time trial on Wednesday in Geelong, Australia. Judit Arndt (Germany) made a late surge to overtake Linda Villumsen (New Zealand) for the silver medal. Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli (France), who turns 52 next month, continues to defy ageing, finishing fifth after briefly occupying the lead.

Pooley was the strongest rider from start to finish. She was over eight seconds ahead of Arndt at the first and second splits, and increased her margin in the final eight kilometres to 15 seconds. This, despite having to change her position at the last minute when her bike didn't pass inspection.

"I had to move the saddle back a bit and move the bars up a bit because it wasn't within the regulations. I get a small exception because I am very short but it still wasn't quite right. This was because I was using a different bike to the one I had been racing on all year. It hadn't been measured since September last year for a race, so it was a little bit stressful, but I had plenty of time, so it was okay. It was just a little bit different to the position I had been training on, which was a bit of a shame. But it was okay in the end.

"That's why you go out early to check your bike. When you are my size you always need to check. When you have a morphological exception rule you just leave enough time, so if you need to change something then that's the rules, so you do.

"I am not that short! I am within the normal range of the population. I just got the lower end of it. I just eat lots I suppose. And lots of  training. Everyone trains a lot, I just guess it was my day.

Arndt, after a slightly slower start behind Villumsen, managed to move up in the final kilometres to finish 0.63 of a second faster. The silver medal was her fifth medal in the time trial (one behind Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli).

"It is always nice to win a medal at the world championships, but I would be happy if it was a gold medal sometime. I am always second. I don't know why! I am pretty happy with my ride. I think I did a good ride technically. I cornered pretty well. But for me it would have been better if it was a few degrees warmer but that is something you can't change. I think I started strong. I always try to start a little faster because that is my weakness."

"I would prefer to win. I think Emma was really strong today and I am not really disappointed [with second]. But if you try again and again and again and you never win, then of course you are a little bit disappointed."

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