European Championships: Elite Women's Time Trial – Live report

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the UEC European Road Championships in Plouay, France.

The action is underway here as Varvara Fasio (Greece) is the first to head off down the ramp.

There are 26 women on the start list today, ending with four-time European champion Ellen Van Dijk (Netherlands) in 25 minutes.

You can find the full start list in starting order here.

Riders are going off at one-minute intervals here, so a few have set off already. Katrine Aalerud (Norway) is the latest woman to start.

Now Sara Van de Vel (Belgium) sets off. She finished second at the Belgian TT Championships at the weekend.

It's a rolling parcours with climbing from the off and plenty of hills in the first half. The riders will enjoy a tailwind for the run north though. On the way back there are fewer climbs but they'll be riding into the wind.

Elizabeth Banks (Great Britain) is off now. This is her debut at the Euro time trial.

Audrey Cordon-Ragot (France), who finished second in the French TT Championships and then won the road race, follows a minute later.

Double Polish TT champion Anna Plichta is followed by Lisa Brennauer, who is a three-time German champion in the time trial and the road race.

No time checks as of yet.

And now Juliette Labous, the new French time trial champion, heads off. She flew out down the ramp.

We have an index page of all new national champions – both men's and women's on the road and time trial.

Check it out here.

We're already into the final ten riders to head off. Hayley Simmonds (Great Britain) and Alena Amialiusik (Belarus) are next down the ramp.

Anna van der Breggen (Netherlands), one of the big favourites for the win here, sets off. She's the new Dutch road champion.

Lisa Klein (Germany) who finished second here last year starts her effort, followed by reigning champion Ellen van Dijk (Netherlands). All the riders are out on the road now.

It seems as though there's no live timing or checkpoints at this time trial, which isn't ideal. 

Alena Amialiusik looks good out on the course though, powering along on her 1x SRAM chainring.

Ah, there is an intermediate split after all at 13.4km.

The only information we hav at the moment is that Lisa Brennauer is fastest so far, with a time of 16:53.

Van der Breggen is closing in on Marlen Reusser, her minute woman.

Vittoria Bussi (Italy) has gone through fastest now with a time of 16:42.

Brennauer and Plichta are next at the checkpoint, 11 and 16 seconds down respectively.

37:46 for Olena Sharga (Ukraine) at the finish. She was the second woman off so sh's passed Fasoi at some point out on the course.

Katrine Aalerud (Norway) goes fastest by ten seconds.

The times at the finish are only falling now. Elizabeth Banks goes through in a time of 36:24.

A 36:12 for Cordon-Ragot now. Plichta will beat that.

35:47 for Plichta! And Brennauer is going faster too!

So this is the top of the leaderboard at the moment...

1. Lisa Brennauer (Germany)  35:17

2. Anna Plichta (Poland) 35:47

3. Audrey Cordon-Ragot (France) 36:12

4. Elizabeth Banks (Great Britain) 36:24

Meanwhile, Van der Breggen is fastest at the checkpoint. Her time of 16:09 is six seconds up on Van Djik, while Bussi is third, 32 seconds down.

Labous finishees 30 seconds down on Brennauer.

She was a split second ahead of Plichta.

Bussi goes second.

1. Lisa Brennauer (Germany)  35:17

2. Vittoria Bussi (Italy) 35:36

3. Juliette Labous (France) 35.47

4. Anna Plichta (Poland) 35:47

5. Audrey Cordon-Ragot (France) 36:12

6. Elizabeth Banks (Great Britain) 36:24

Van der Breggen is coming to the finish with Reusser.

They had battled all race after the Dutchwoman caught the Swiss.

Van der Breggen blitzes the leaderboards, over a minute up with a time of 34:03!

Reusser is second-fastest, 59 seconds down. They certainly benefitted from some drafting between each other there.

1. Anna van der Breggen (Netherlands) 34:03

2. Marlen Reusser (Switzerland) 35:02

3. Lisa Brennauer (Germany)  35:17

4. Vittoria Bussi (Italy) 35:36

5. Juliette Labous (France) 35.47

6. Anna Plichta (Poland) 35:47

7. Audrey Cordon-Ragot (France) 36:12

8. Elizabeth Banks (Great Britain) 36:24

Just Klein and Van Dijk left to finish now.

Here's Van Dijk...

She's slower. Van der Breggen is the new European champion!

34:33 for Van Dijk puts her in second.

Lisa Klein crosses the line. She lost just over a minute to Van Dijk so will be somewhere in the middle of the top ten.

The provisional top five at the finish:

1. Anna van der Breggen (Netherlands) 34:03

2. Ellen Van Dijk (Netherlands) 34:33

3. Marlen Reusser (Switzerland) 35:02

4. Lisa Brennauer (Germany)  35:17

5. Vittoria Bussi (Italy) 35:36

That's the third Dutch one-two in five years of the UEC European Championships women's time trial. The other two years saw one-three finishes for the Netherlands, too.

Between 2016 and 2018, Van der Breggen took two seconds and a third behind Van Dijk. She turned the tables today, though.

Anna van der Breggen speaks after the finish:

"For me, I focussed already for quite a long time on this. We worked a lot on this during the COVID period so this feels really good. For it to work out here today is very special.

"This area is a kind of rolling climbs. For a time trial it's quite difficult because you need to shift very well and take the speed onto the next climbs. That's really something I like. The course today was very beautiful and when I saw it I thought 'I have a good chance here to win'.

Van der Breggen powering to the finish earlier.

And here she showing off her gold medal in her new jersey...

Our live coverage of the men's time trial is now underway. Check it out here.

Our full report on the women's race is up, along with brief results and a photo gallery.