Irish team get championships campaign off to a solid start

Olivia Dillon and Heather Wilson kicked off the Irish campaign at the UCI Road World Championships in Italy on Wednesday with solid results in the elite women's time trial. Irish champion Dillon covered the 25.15km course in a time of 38'16 minutes to finish with an average speed of nearly 40km/h, and Irish 25-mile record holder Wilson finished in 39'13 minutes.

"They were tough conditions out there today," said Dillon. "“It was good to get the experience and now we know what we have to work on for the next time around. I started off really hard and suffered in the middle section but came round again towards the end. There a number of things I know I can improve on as I hadn't raced on a course like this before.

"It was a tough course against the best women in the world. It must have been hard for Kristin Armstrong to come back from Beijing as Olympic champion and to only get fourth today," she said sympathetically.

Wilson and Dillon will double up and also contest the road race on Saturday, with both supporting Irish champion Siobhan Dervan.