Pirrone wins junior women time trial world title

Pre-race favourite Elena Pirrone won the junior women's time trial title at the World Championships on Monday, beating her own teammate Alessia Vigilia to take the victory in Bergen. There were just six seconds between the pair with Australia's Madeleine Fasnacht taking third some 42 seconds off the pace set by Pirrone.

European time trial champion, Pirrone was the last rider to depart the starting ramp in Norway and was one of those affected by the rain that fell in the latter half of the event. It didn't stop her going fastest at the first check before extending her lead at the second. Pirrone passed another of the pre-race favourites, Emma Cecilie Norsgaard (Denmark) out on course. The Dane would eventually finish 16th after having to find a last-minute replacement for her bike when the UCI deemed her original to be outside the regulations.

There was a tense wait for the riders in the hotseat as Pirrone picked her way to the line but there was little doubt that the 18-year-old Italian, who finished 10th in Qatar a year ago, would go on to take the rainbow jersey. She completed the course in a time of 23 minutes 19 seconds.

Vigilia had a long wait to see her teammate Pirrone topple her time. Despite some serious time trialling pedigree, including second at the European championships last year, Vigilia set off first of the 47 riders. By virtue of being first, she immediately posted the quickest time, but she would spend the next 45 minutes watching riders try and fail to beat her time. It looked like Italy could get a full house of medals with Letizia Paternoster going fastest at the first checkpoint during her run, but she faded in the latter part of the course. Paternoster reportedly suffered a failure of her radio system, which meant she was unable to get timing information.

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