European Championships: Anna van der Breggen wins elite women's time trial title

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Anna van der Breggen (Netherlands) became the women’s European time trial champion after a dominant and convincing ride over the 25.6km course in Plouay, France. The Dutch rider set a blistering pace and completed the course in a time of 34:03 with last year’s winner Ellen van Dijk (Netherlands) forced to settle for silver, with a time that was 30 seconds slower. Marleen Reusser (Switzerland) completed the podium in a time 59 seconds slower than van der Breggen. 

"I had [opponents] but in a time trial you do it alone and so you don’t see anybody," van der Breggen said in a post-race interview. "For me, I focussed for a long time on this and I wanted to do a good time trial, and in the last COVID period, so this feels really good that it paid off and I could win here today. It feels very special.

"This area has rolling climbs and it’s quite difficult for time trials because you need to shift well and take your speed into the next climbs. That is something I like. I think the course today was beautiful and when I saw it, I knew I had a good chance to win. I tried everything and it’s good.

"This season, I’m happy we can do a lot of races. We will have to see if there’s a World Championships, but if the season goes like this, I can’t complain. I really enjoy to see what’s next but for now I hope to have a really good week."

Varvara Fasio (Greece) was the first rider off as riders took on the rolling 25.6km course. Audrey Cordon-Ragot (France) was the first big-hitter to start, having won the French national road race championships and finished second in the corresponding time trial just a few days previously. 

Elizabeth Banks (Great Britain) was the next rider to start, with van der Breggen rolling out soon after. The final two riders on the road were Lisa Klein (Germany), who finished second here last year, followed by reigning champion van Dijk, who had won the previous four editions of the event.

Van der Breggen set a blistering pace and was upon her minute-rider, Reusser, almost from the start.

Meanwhile, at the finish, a flurry of riders set fastest times with Banks, Cordon-Ragot, Anna Plichta (Poland) and the always impressive Lisa Brennauer (Germany), all posting provisional lead times.

Back down the course, van der Breggen set the fastest time at the intermediate checkpoint. Her time of 16:09 was six seconds up on Van Djik, while Bussi moved into third.

Van der Breggen and Reusser appeared to be riding a two-up time trial as they approached the line with both riders clearly benefitting from each other’s slipstream, as they battled to the finish. On the line van der Breggen set the fastest time with only van Dijk coming remotely close to challenging her compatriot.