UCI Road World Championships 2010: Elite Women

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January 1 - October 3, Geelong, Melbourne, Australia, Road - CM

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Welcome back for the second event at the 2010 UCI Road World Championships, the elite women's time trial. The women's title will be contested over a 22.9 kilometre circuit in Geelong, Australia.

The women's race has started in the same fashion as this morning's Under 23 men's event: with a Mexican rider. Veronica Leal Balderas (Mexico) is the first down the start ramp.

Kimberley Yap (Malaysia) is away and followed by Chanpeng Nontasin (Thailand).

Kathryn Bertin rolls down the start ramp as the only entrant from St Kitts and Nevis in the women's race.

As the women's race is around 10 kilometres shorter than this morning's Under 23 men's event we'll have one less check point to keep you up to date with times throughout the race. The first timing point is after the early climb, 6.6km into the race as it was with the U23 event.

Unlike this morning's event the women's field will start with 1:30 minutes between each rider until the whole field has left the start house. They are no split into groups with a 30 minute gap.

The first rider away Veronica Leal Balderas (Mexico) has reached the first check point. It doesn't mean much yet, but she clocked 11:59 minutes at the 6.6 kilometre mark.

The 11th rider to leave the start house is Svitlana Galyuk (Ukraine) as she makes her way up the home straight for the first time.

Kimberley Yap (Malaysia) and Chanpeng Nontasin (Thailand) have both passed through the first time check, but both were slower than the Mexican rider.

Chanpeng Nontasin (Thailand) looks to be in a world of pain on the first climb, with some local teenagers walking along beside her shouting encouraging messages.

Veronica Leal Balderas (Mexico) still holds the quickest time at check point one, with six riders now through the mark.

Bertine is also in difficulty on the first climb and has been passed by Lesya Kalitovska (Ukraine) as a result.

There's a few clear favourites for the women's race this year, including none other than Judith Arndt (Germany). Arndt has already been successful in Australia this year - winning a pre-season mountain bike race and finishing on the Australian championships podium, a race she entered as training.

Evelyn Stevens (United States Of America) has rolled down the start ramp, meaning we have about half of the women's field on the course at the moment.

Kimberley Yap (Malaysia) has been caught by Chanpeng Nontasin (Thailand) on the second climb.

Patricia Schwager (Switzerland) has set a new fastest time at the first check point. She's 13 seconds faster than Svitlana Galyuk (Ukraine) while Veronica Leal Balderas (Mexico) still holds the third fastest time at that point.

Veronica Leal Balderas (Mexico) is also the fastest rider at the second check point. She's about 22 seconds ahead of Chanpeng Nontasin (Thailand) at that point, with only three riders having reached the 14.7 km mark.

Tara Whitten (Canada) has set a new fasttest time at the 6.6 kilometre mark ahead of Shara Gillow (Australia). Whitten's 11:03 is by far the quickest time to date, with Gillow's second fastest still 22 seconds behind.

As Anne Samplonius (Canada) rolls out of the start house there's just 14 more women to start the event.

Veronica Leal Balderas (Mexico) is still in the lead at the 14.7km mark, where seven riders have now passed through.

Veronica Leal Balderas (Mexico) is the first to cross the finish line, setting a benchmark time of 0:36:06.09.

Some of the race's biggest names are yet to start and unlike the U23 race we probably wont see one rider hold the lead for a prolonged period.

Stevens is looking in fine form, powering past one of her rivals on the climb.

51-year-old (yes, that's correct) Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli (France) has rolled on to the course. She will be one to watch for a top 10.

Gillow is the quickest rider at the second check point now, with the rider covering 14.7 kilometres in 22:25.

Whitten is still the quickest at the first check point, however Stevens and Emma Johansson (Sweden) have taken second and third places behind her.

With Swedish sensation Emilia Fahlin (Sweden) away from the start ramp, there's just eight more riders to get their race underway.

Emma Pooley (Great Britain) - one of the race favourite - has started her run.

Whitten is still quickest at the 6.6km mark but Tatiana Guderzo (Italy) has now posted the third fastest time there, 14.46 seconds behind.

Regina Bruins (Netherlands) has taken to the course meaning there's just five riders remaining.

Amber Neben (United States Of America) is away from the gate now too - Neben is one of the favourites for today's race.

Evelyn Stevens (United States Of America) has posted the quickest time at the second check point.

Former Denmark rider Linda Melanie Villumsen (New Zealand) has left the start ramp. That leaves just Alexis Rhodes (Australia) and Judith Arndt (Germany) to go!

Australia has moved into the race lead with Shara Gillow knocking off the Mexican rider's time.

But that has quickly moved to Tara Whitten as the Canadian rider crosses the finish line and takes the race lead.

Emma Pooley (Great Britain) has set the fastest time at the 6.6km mark, going 1.02 seconds quicker than Whitten's time.

Emma Pooley (Great Britain) looks very good out there and the GPS data says she's the race leader by about eight seconds at this point.

Amber Neben (USA) has slotted into fourth after the 6.6km time check. She's slightly over 10 seconds off Emma Pooley's pace.

Evelyn Stevens (USA) has crossed the finish line with the fastest time to date.

Judith Arndt (Germany) is climbing towards the first check point. We should get an indication of how she's going soon.

Emma Pooley is still quickest at the first check point, with Linda Villumsen only able to manage third place.

Judith Arndt (Germany) is even slower at the first check point, taking fourth place nine seconds behind.

Pooley is also quickest at the second check point now, but the big surprise is Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli (France) who has moved into second at that point.

More riders have finished but only Tatiana Guderzo has managed to crack the top five so far.

We have a new leader! 51-year-old Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli has moved into the race lead.

Meanwhile Neben has moved up during the second sector, bumping Longo down to the third fastest time at that point but she's still behind Pooley's time.

Villumsen too has done better in the second sector, bumping Neben down to third now but like the USA rider can't match Pooley's time. Britain is starting to look like it will leave with one title today afterall!

With just nine more riders to finish, this is what the order looks like:

Emma Pooley (Great Britain) has crossed the finish line and moved into the hot seat with eight riders remaining.

Noemi Cantele (Italy) was hoping to win today, but she's just crossed the line in ninth place with a handful of riders remaining. That means she won't be on the podium for a second year running.

All of the remaining riders are in the final sector, so we should know within minutes if anyone will knock Pooley off the top seat.

The medal places have changed with Villumsen moving in to second while Neben sits in third, but nobody can touch Pooley and there's very few riders left out on the course.

Arndt is really the only rider who could unseed Pooley, as Rhodes isn't tracking well enough.

Arndt has crossed the line in second place, meaning the gold medal is Pooleys! Bronze will go to new New Zealander Villumsen.

Rhodes has crossed the line clearly unhappy with her placing outside the top 15.

Well that's it for the first day of racing at the UCI Road World Championships folks. Be sure to join us tomorrow as the elite men hit the Geelong time trial course and battle for gold.

Results

1 Emma Pooley (Great Britain) 0:32:48.44
2 Judith Arndt (Germany) 0:33:03.61
3 Linda Melanie Villumsen (New Zealand) 0:33:04.24
4 Amber Neben (United States Of America) 0:33:26.10
5 Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli (France) 0:33:32.38
6 Evelyn Stevens (United States Of America) 0:33:48.52
7 Tara Whitten (Canada) 0:33:54.35
8 Shara Gillow (Australia) 0:34:01.62
9 Emilia Fahlin (Sweden) 0:34:10.64
10 Tatiana Guderzo (Italy) 0:34:13.99
11 Emma Johansson (Sweden) 0:34:22.32
12 Noemi Cantele (Italy) 0:34:29.59
13 Patricia Schwager (Switzerland) 0:34:39.23
14 Charlotte Becker (Germany) 0:34:42.39
15 Anne Samplonius (Canada) 0:34:43.25
16 Melissa Holt (New Zealand) 0:34:53.83
17 Tatiana Antoshina (Russian Federation) 0:35:04.70
18 Vicki Whitelaw (Australia) 0:35:07.75
19 Alexis Rhodes (Australia) 0:35:12.22
20 Olga Zabelinskaya (Russian Federation) 0:35:18.29
21 Regina Bruins (Netherlands) 0:35:48.19
22 Grace Verbeke (Belgium) 0:35:49.42
23 Katazina Sosna (Lithuania) 0:35:49.94
24 Veronica Leal Balderas (Mexico) 0:36:06.09
25 Svitlana Galyuk (Ukraine) 0:36:11.90
26 Chanpeng Nontasin (Thailand) 0:36:26.81
27 Tatiana Panina (Belarus) 0:36:50.69
28 Valeria Teresita Muller (Argentina) 0:36:55.93
29 Lesya Kalitovska (Ukraine) 0:37:12.09
30 Doris Schweizer (Switzerland) 0:37:16.39
31 Monrudee Chapookham (Thailand) 0:38:00.97
32 Rosa Maria Bravo Soba (Spain) 0:38:14.41
33 Yelena Antonova (Kazakhstan) 0:38:29.07
34 Belen Lopez Morales (Spain) 0:38:46.00
35 Kimberley Yap (Malaysia) 0:38:46.66
36 Mariana Mohammad (Malaysia) 0:39:34.25
37 Kathryn Bertine SKN19750511 0:39:41.34
38 Dinah Chan (Singapore) 0:40:12.91
 

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