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RACE REPORTS: AMERICAN NEBEN TIME TRIAL QUEEN AT VARESE WORLDS
Road Bike Action
September 25, 2008
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75th World Championships - CM
Varese, Italy, September 23-28, 2008
Wednesday, September 24
Women's time trial / 25.15km
Amber Neben upstaged American compatriot Kristin Armstrong, the new Olympic champion, by winning the women's time trial gold here at the world road race championships on Wednesday. Austrian Christiane Soeder finished second at just under 8" to take the silver medal with Germany's Judith Arndt claiming bronze after finishing nearly 22" behind in third.
Neben, who finished fourth last year and fifth in 2005, clocked a winning time of 33'51.35" for the rolling 25.15km course to claim her maiden world title at 34. "I'm just lost for words, I'm
so happy and excited," said Neben, who started 14th from last from the 43 rider field and led all the intermediate checkpoints before pushing Russia's Tatiana Antoshina off provisional top spot.
After finishing way down the time trial field at the Olympics, the unassuming Californian who rides as a professional for Dutch Team Flexpoint had decided on a tailor-made programme to bring her to Varese on top form. Still, she was ill prepared for the nervous wait in the hot seat, with no TV pictures to indicate the times of her rivals. "There were 13 riders behind me so the only chance I had was to finish fastest and then wait. I tried not to get too excited ... I was just praying and waiting," she added.
Neben last week won the difficult Tour de l'Ardeche stage race, and raced some time trials in between to bring her to peak form. Olympic champion Armstrong finished in fifth, almost six seconds outside bronze medal pace, while TT specialist Soeder was delighted with her silver medal, having failed to live up to expectations at last year's Worlds. In Stuttgart, she was third behind Armstrong and German winner Hanka Kupfernagel and at the Beijing Games Soeder finished seventh, having spent precious energy in the road race. "I think in Beijing I suffered from my efforts in the road race," said the bubbly Austrian. "But sometimes you have good and bad days, and this is definitely one of the good ones."
Arndt is one of the elder stateswomen of the women's professional scene and, despite picking up her fourth medal from the worlds time trial, the 32-year-old is aiming primarily for a medal in the women's road race on Saturday. "I'm really happy because I didn't expect to win a medal today," said Arndt, the 2004 world road race champion. "I've had a lot of ups and downs this season and I didn't train specifically for the time trial."
"The course was very beautiful, and very challenging. You had to stay on the gas the whole time, keeping the power on, keeping it steady. It was really heavy, so it was hard all the way round. I just tried to stay focused the best that I could, and it has turned out well."
Neben said that this Worlds was different than her previous Worlds because "With my coach, we worked on my base fitness after the Olympics at home, and then did a 10-day race block here in Europe. My coach designed a really structured build-up for me, and I have to give him a lot of credit. He did a good job getting me ready. Everything has to be perfect - your preparation, your head, your body. It all comes together. It's a fantastic feeling right now."
Results
1. Amber Neben (USA) 33'51.35"
(44.571 km/hr avg. speed)
2. Christiane Soeder (Austria)@ 07.56"
3. Judith Arndt (Germany) @ 21.77"
4. Tatiana Antoshina (Russian Federation) @ 23.39"
5. Kristin Armstrong (United States Of America) @ 25.27"
6. Karin Thürig (Switzerland) @ 29.99"
7. Susanne Ljungskog (Sweden) @ 57.38"
8. Emma Pooley (Great Britain) @ 57.52"
9. Charlotte Becker (Germany) @ 1'03.32"
10. Linda Villumsen (Denmark) @ 1'05.43"
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