Ammerlaan wins junior women's time trial world title

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Rozemarijn Ammerlaan (Netherlands) claimed the first rainbow jersey of the 2018 UCI Road World Championships, winning the junior women’s individual time trial in Innsbruck on Monday morning.

The 18-year-old Dutchwoman completed the 20km course in a time of 27:02, beating early started Camilla Alessio (Italy) by seven seconds.

The bronze medal went to Britain’s Elynor Backstedt, a first-year junior and daughter of former pro Magnus Backstedt, with the 16-year-old finishing 18 seconds down on Ammerlaan.

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“I’m really a bit surprised. I didn’t expect this, I don’t have any words for this,” Ammerlaan said.

“It was really tough, especially the second part with some hills. It was very tough. Also it was a headwind so it was so hard. I didn’t know anything about times or how I was riding. I didn’t want to know that because it doesn’t bring me anything – I just rode.”

Ammerlaan has had a strong season, becoming the Dutch junior women’s time trial champion before beating many of her rivals today against the clock at the Watersley Ladies Challenge.

Among the favourites were Vittoria Guazzini (Italy) and Hannah Ludwig (Germany), who had won gold and silver respectively at the junior and U23 women’s time trial at the European Championships. However, Guazzini could only manage sixth, at 24 seconds, while Ludwig, the last starter after finishing fourth last year, only just scraped inside the top 10 and broke down in tears at the finish.

While many were focused on the high-profile late finishers, it was Alessio, the second rider off the ramp, who went into the hotseat for most of the race. Backstedt, too, sprang something of a surprise as she blitzed the flatter first half of the course. She was the fastest of all riders at the intermediate checkpoint and bagged a medal, just ahead of her more established teammate Pfeiffer Georgi.

But Ammerlaan was the strongest on the day to provide an indication that the extraordinary pool of Dutch talent won’t be drying up any time soon.

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