Road World Championships: Felicity Wilson-Haffenden back in rainbows with fantastically strong women's under-23 time trial ride

Felicity Wilson-Haffenden (Australia) raced to the under-23 women's world time trial title on Montreal on Monday afternoon, blitzing the 20.3km course at an average speed of 44kph.

The Australian, already her nation's elite time trial champion and a former junior world champion, beat Nienke Vinke (Netherlands) to the top of the leaderboard by 28 seconds, having raced a negative split to speed up as her rider progressed.

Vinke had sat in the hot seat as provisional leader for almost an hour before Wilson-Haffenden unseated her, going second at the first checkpoint and then flying through the second to establish her dominance.

In the end, Wilson-Haffenden's time of 27:40 was the only sub-28-minute time of the day, well up on Vinke's 28:09, and further clear of third-placed finisher, Luca Vierstraete (Belgium), who took home the bronze medal with a time of 28:25.

There would be no home joy for Canada as Ava Holmgren ending the day as the best of their two entrants. She ended up in sixth place with a time of 28:42.

"I hit the U-turn and then I hit the headwind and then I went 'Oh, it's still a long way home.' I knew I had to fight with everything I had up that last drag. It's so long," Wilson-Haffenden said after the finish.

"You see the finish from the bottom but it's still one minute away. My legs were going but my willpower was getting me there. I had a bit of a spectacular finish collapse, but this is not unknown to me and I just have to trust that my soigneurs are going to be there. I'm so happy today.

"It's a really big win for me to pace something well because it's something I really, really struggle with. To be honest, I did explode myself a little bit on the way out. The tailwind gets you so excited and then you turn and you realise you do have legs and they do actually get lactic, so I was just fighting with everything I had and really picking the moments where I could put time in and where I could conserve.

"With that finish you can lose so much time in the last 600 metres, so I was just trying to give everything but not quite over the limit until I got to that corner. Then, as I said, I saw rainbows at the top and I went as hard as I could.

"In Glasgow when I won, I was still one year into cycling. So to sit here now three years later with already three world titles, I never would have believed it, to be honest. I definitely have my eyes on more in the future. I'm a hungry person, and I will say the elite title is something that I do dream of, but right now I'm going to be so happy just to sit in my room and have a look at those three tonight."

Fierce competition in second-ever standalone U23 TT

Racing got underway with Benin's Georgette Vignonfodo, the first of 52 riders to tackle the 20.3km course in Montreal. The early nations – Benin, plus the likes of Guatemala, China, and Indonesia – got their time in the spotlight early on.

Haixin Dong (China) was the quickest of the early starters, with her time of 31:22 beating those around her, including Vignonfodo and Camilee Chasteau de Balyon (Mauritius), by over 40 seconds.

That time was quickly bested by riders from bigger cycling nations, however. Sidney Swierenga (Canada) and Febe Jooris (Belgium) were among the first 15 riders. Swierenga was the first rider to the finish under 30 minutes, logging a 29:17 to top the leaderboards before Jooris swept through 29 seconds to the good to dethrone the home racer.

Out on course, 20th starter Nienke Vinke (Netherlands) was making a hot start as the first rider to hit the first checkpoint in under eight minutes. The 22-year-old was quickest at the second check, too, and duly crossed the line with a time of 28:09 to snatch provisional first from Jooris by 39 seconds.

The next batch of riders out on course wouldn't trouble Vinke's time, though Wilma Antila (Finland) was going well – second at the first check – before a crash cost her momentum and end up in third place with a 29:10.

Mackenzie Coupland (Australia), the 30th rider off, was also speeding along. She improved from fourth to second between the first and second checkpoints, but still Vinke proved immovable at the top of the standings, 18 seconds clear.

Even as the later runners – including Luca Vierstraete (Belgium), Amandine Muller (France), and Paula Ostiz (Spain) – went out, none could lay a glove on Vinke, all losing over 10 seconds at the first checkpoint. Vierstraete improved to second place, however, at 11 seconds off Vinke, at the second check.

Home favourite Ava Holmgren (Canada), the 48th rider to start, clocked a time just six second off Vinke at the first checkpoint, while Felicity Wilson-Haffenden and Viktória Chladaňová (Slovakia) beat her time, with Wilson-Haffenden passing through just tenths of a second off Vinke.

Vinke's time survived Vierstrate's assault, with the Belgian concluding her run at a deficit of 16 seconds. After her, it looked to be up to Holmgren, Wilson-Haffenden, and Chladaňová if anyone were to unseat the world champion-elect.

The Australian looked best placed to do so at the second checkpoint, storming through 26 seconds up on Vinke as Holmgren and Chladaňová lost ground. Holmgren would end her run 32 seconds down and already out of the medal positions, but Wilson-Haffenden continued to fly, ending up as the only rider to best Vinke's time.

All that was left then was for Chladaňová to finish off the day's action, the Slovakian desperately close to a medal as she finished within a second of Vierstraete's third place.

Results

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