World Championships: Team Sunweb win women's team time trial

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Team Sunweb took the first title of the 2017 UCI Road World Championships in Bergen with victory in the women's team time trial, beating big rivals and 2016 winners Boels Dolmans by 12 seconds.

The six riders rode a well-paced race, tackling the steep climb after 30km at a careful tempo to avoid blowing apart the team. They went on to finish with four riders, stopping the clock on 55:41 at the end of the 42.5km course. 

Boels Dolmans started last but struggled to match Team Sunweb and finished 12 seconds slower in central Bergen. The Cervelo-Bigla team took the bronze medal, finishing 28 seconds slower.

Canyon-SRAM were fourth at 1:04, with Team Virtu fifth at 2:51. The Danish team lost world time trial champion Amber Neben early in the race after she dropped her chain.

"None of us really expected this - we were going for the podium," said Sunweb's Ellen van Dijk.

"We had a really smooth race. When we finished we just thought it was a great ride and were just happy anyway. So when we saw we were so close to Boels, we couldn’t believe it. And then we beat them - it's still a little surreal.

"It was so important not to overpace it on the climbs, because then you blow up the whole team. That was our strength today, and we used each other's strengths in a really good way. It was incredible to win like that."

How it happened

Team Virtu Cycling Women was the first of the nine teams to start and with former TT world champions in Amber Neber and Linda Linda Villumsen driving the pace. On track for a podium through the early kilometres, the team lost Christina Siggaard after her early pace-setting then also had to do with Neben who suffered a mechanical. Down to the minimum of four riders, the team would eventually finish in fifth place.

Starting 15 minutes after Virtu, Team Sunweb Women rolled out for its race against the clock, executing its pre-race plan to a t. They also lost two riders but with former world champion in the TTT and ITT, Ellen van Dijk, paced the finale to set a new best time, 2:52 faster then Virtu.

Cervelo Bigla was next off after Sunweb, and despite recent advances in the discipline Sunweb were untouchable and they crossed the line 28 seconds in arrears. Canyon-SRAM was the next challenger but could not sustain the high speed needed to compete for a podium and would eventually finish in fourth.

That left just Boels Dolmans between Sunweb and a gold medal but the defending champions would not go down without a fight. Posting the fastest time at the first two time checks, it was a nervous wait for Sunweb but Boels Dolmans ran out of legs in the finale to finish 12 seconds off the gold.

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