David Millar and Tara Whitten win time-trials at the Commonwealth Games
Canadian Tara Whitten and Scotsman David Millar were responsible for stopping Australia’s winning streak from spilling over into Wednesday’s competition, the final of six days of cycling at the 2010 New
Delhi Commonwealth Games and the first and only day that Australia didn’t win a gold medal. Before Wednesday, Australia had taken at least two gold medals per day, for a total of 14 out of 16 golds, but the nation could not do the same in the time-trials.
Cycling began with four consecutive days of track racing, starting on Tuesday, 5 October, followed by the men’s and women’s road races on Sunday, and concluding with the men’s and women’s time-trial competitions
this Wednesday. Whitten won the women’s time-trial and Scotsman David Millar won the men’s, as predicted by Mark Cavendish.
"He was incredibly strong,” said Cavendish after Millar’s bronze medal in the road race on Sunday, 10 October. “It'll be two medals, because I'm positive he'll win on Wednesday.”
The 17th gold medal was won by Canadian Tara Whitten, who won two bronze medals in track cycling last week. She finished the 29km time-trial in 38:59.30, whick was 4.85 seconds ahead of silver
medalist Linda Villumsen of New Zealand, and 10.22 ahead of bronze medalist Julia Shaw of England. Australian Alexis Rhodes finished in fourth, 23.24 seconds behind.
“I'm really happy,” said Whitten to the BBC. “It was the best day's racing I've ever had. It was really painful for the last 10km, but I knew I had to win, so I was able to hold it together.”
English rider Emma Pooley was unable to match her gold medal in the elite women’s world time-trial championships, due to a stomach bug she picked up in New Delhi, which also hurt her road race performance.
She had hoped it would pass before the time-trial.
“I had no idea what to expect out here. As the race was happening, I didn't really know how I was doing. I just tried to keep going,” said Pooley. “The course didn't suit me and I didn't have a good ride.”
Millar’s win was easier. While the six top finishers in the women’s race finished within 36 seconds of the winner, the men’s silver medalist Alex Dowsett of England finished 55 seconds behind Miller. Luke
Durbridge won the bronze, 1:01 minutes behind the winner, the only medal won by an Australian in Wednesday’s races.
“It was a very physical course, like being on a treadmill. It hurt," said Millar. "All year, I have been preparing for this. I do a lot of races outside of this like the world championships last week.
This is my last big event of the year and it's great to have got gold."
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