The Dutch fight well against the clock

The Netherlands team celebrated its second time trial medal in the World Championships Thursday, as Stef Clement took the bronze in the men's race. The day before, Lars Boom had won the U23 time trial.

"I gave it all I had in the final 10 kilometres," Clement, who rides for Bouygues Telecom, said on rabobank.nl. "But, I did that from the beginning. That is the kind of rhythm you want to keep. If you can do that, you will ride a good time trial. Riding a time trial nowadays is not only about composing a good individual schedule. I know that I can go one hundred percent for about an hour when I have a good day. But, you need to wait and see whether you have one of those good days. Fortunately, I did. Now, for the second time in one week, I finished in third place in such an important race. I would have been absolutely all smiles had they told me this beforehand."

Clement also assured the Netherlands of a spot in the Olympic race. "I had written down a top 15 to achieve that. But this … I still do not quite realize it; I am full of amazement. I am looking my eyes out. I am going to enjoy this a lot."

The Netherlands' other starter, Joost Posthuma, who was in the top ten at the first intermediate time check, lost all chances when he crashed in the final ten kilometres.