Emma Pooley wins Women’s time-trial
Emma Pooley has taken her first road title with a spectacular win in the Women’s time-trial competition at the 2010 UCI Road World Championships in Geelong, Australia. Germany’s Judith Arndt and New Zealand’s Linda Villumsen, both from HTC-Columbia, both
finished over 15 seconds behind, though they stood on the podium with the British winner.
"I'm really happy and can't quite believe it," said Pooley. "I am so proud to wear the World champion's jersey with the stripes for a whole year! It was pretty special to come second at the Olympic Games, but in a way, that was easier for me because I had
no expectations and no pressure. This time it was different. I trained specifically for this, doing a lot of hill training and intervals on my time trial bike."
The fastest time was originally set by 52-year-old Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli of France, who consistently defies her age and ultimately finished with the fifth-best time in the Women’s time-trial, a competition for which she hold six medals. Villumsen’s time
of 15.8 stood until Arndt narrowly beat it by 0.63 seconds, winning a medal in the World Championships time-trial competition for the fifth time.
"It is always nice to win a medal at the world championships, but I would be happy if it was a gold medal sometimes,” said Arndt. “I am always second. I don't know why! I am pretty happy with my ride. I think I did a good ride technically. I cornered pretty
well. But for me it would have been better if it was a few degrees warmer but that is something you can't change. I think I started strong. I always try to start a little faster because that is my weakness."
The 22.8km course included two difficult climbs and a tricky descent, which was the downfall of Poolay at the Beijing Olympics. The Brit has been working on her downhill skills in preparation of the event, and she defied expectations by collecting the top
time at every checkpoints. This victory is made even sweeter by knowing that a last-minute change of position didn’t sway her confidence. The extremely short champion had to move the bars up and saddle of her bike back, closer to standard position, when it
didn’t pass the pre-race inspection, meaning that she won the competition despite riding in a different position than she had trained.
“I get a small exception because I am very short but it still wasn't quite right. This was because I was using a different bike to the one I had been racing on all year. It hadn't been measured since September last year for a race, so it was a little bit
stressful, but I had plenty of time, so it was okay.”
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