Scrymgeour closes out Velocio SRAM era with record Worlds win

As farewells to professional cycling go Velocio SRAM could not have hoped for a better ending on Sunday in Richmond at the World Championships.

The team, managed, set up, and nurtured by Kristy Scrymgeour secured their fourth straight title in the women's team time trial, making a late charge to overturn Boels Dolmans, while Rabo Liv were made to settle for third.

Scrymgeour's teams have now won this event every year since its inception although they came into this year's test under more pressure than usual after a less than convincing ride in the team time trial at the last round of the World Cup in Sweden.

As her team made their way onto the podium Scrymgeour's emotions were clear to see.

"This is relief in some ways. It's always been building up to this moment and we've put a lot of energy into this as it's finishing our season and we know that it was going to be even harder than before because we came off the last World Cup in second place and it was so tight going back and forth the whole time," she told Cyclingnews.

While Scrymgeour's team of Alena Amialiusik, Lisa Brennauer, Barbara Guarischi, Mieke Kroeger, Trixi Worrack, and Karol-Ann Canuel – who needed medical attention at the end after a monumental effort to stay with her teammates – celebrated, she also admitted that there was a tinge of sadness.

"There's also a bit of sadness because this is the end of the team but we've ended on a good note and that's great. We couldn't have asked for a better ending to this team."

Four wins in a row in this event is a measure of the team's consistency over the years and they will leave a void in next year's peloton, although there is an off-shoot squad in the works. When asked what the secret to their TTT success was down to, Scrymgeour replied:

"It's hard to say. Any time you do race you're trying to win. This has been an interesting year and at times a difficult year but we've been able to win all the way through and the girls have done an amazing job. The staff has kept the team together."

Special mention went to veteran rider Worrack who has been part of all four of the team's wins. She made her Worlds debut in Holland in 1998 and has been a consistent performing in a period of racing spanning three decades. She plans on riding for another two seasons.

"She's the only one who has been in all four and it's been amazing to win with all the different riders each year," Scrymgeour said.

"Key is just preparation really. We think that this is a really important event for teams and women's cycling. It's about putting a lot of emphasis on knowing the course. We just take it super seriously." 

 

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Daniel Benson

Daniel Benson was the Editor in Chief at Cyclingnews.com between 2008 and 2022. Based in the UK, he joined the Cyclingnews team in 2008 as the site's first UK-based Managing Editor. In that time, he reported on over a dozen editions of the Tour de France, several World Championships, the Tour Down Under, Spring Classics, and the London 2012 Olympic Games. With the help of the excellent editorial team, he ran the coverage on Cyclingnews and has interviewed leading figures in the sport including UCI Presidents and Tour de France winners.