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Dutch treat: Dumoulin claims elite men’s time trial world championship

Chrono domination from the Netherlands in Bergen, Norway

September 20, 2017
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The first few days of the Bergen 2017 UCI road world championships have been superb ones for the Netherlands. On Tuesday, the gold and silver in the elite women’s individual time trial went to Dutch riders. Wednesday saw the Dutch domination complete as Giro d’Italian champion Tom Dumoulin won the elite men’s chono, an exciting, unusual contest.
https://twitter.com/wcstats/status/910530993282576384
For a world championships route, it was a short time trial at 31-km. The competitors would roll two laps of a flowing course before assailing the formidable Mount Fløyen, a cruel 3.4-km of 11 switchbacks of 9.7%. Dumoulin, Chris Froome (Great Britain) and Rohan Dennis (Australia) were the favourites to medal.


The hill was so steep that most riders were swapping their bikes on a red carpet at the base of the climb.


Canadian’s Rob Britton would be among the first seven to start while Hugo Houle was 28th from last.


Belgian Laurens De Plus was an early leader with 47:16 after he opted to stay on his chrono bike through the rowdy crowds on Mount Fløyen, but Jan Tantink’s 46:24 earned the Slovenian the hot seat.


Dutch rider Wilco Kelderman, recently fourth in the Vuelta a España, cracked Tantink’s time with 46:15. Houle’s 47:47 placed him in temporarily in 10th.


Home favourite Edvald Boasson Hagen rode the whole course on a regular road bike and stopped the clock at 46:52.

Almost immediately after Italian Gianni Moscon posted the fastest time, Portugal’s Nelson Oliveira clocked 46:09.52. Belarus’s 2015 champion Vasil Kiryienka slotted into second only 0.23-seconds slower.

With all the riders having started, Slovenian Primoz Roglic set the fastest time at the first check (3.2-km), while Dennis set the fast mark at the second check (11.5-km). But Dumoulin clipped Dennis’s time at the 11.5-km mark. Meanwhile, Froome was lagging a bit.


The rain really began to tip down, making the cobbles on the circuit slippery. A crash hampered Dennis’s bid for glory. Froome and Dumoulin kept on their time machine bikes for the clamber to the finish.

Oliveira knew better than to really settle in on the hot seat. Roglic sent him packing with 45:38. But Dumoulin was faster by almost a minute.

It was Dumoulin’s first rainbow stripes after taking bronze in 2014. That’s the Sunweb rider’s second gold of the championships after his trade team took the men’s team time trial. Roglic won the silver and Froome beat Oliveira by seven seconds for the bronze.


Houle was top Canadian in 29th, 3:06 back.

The Bergen 2017 road world championships takes a break on Thursday before continuing Friday with the Junior women’s and U23 men’s road races.

Bergen 2017 Road World Championships Elite Men’s Time Trial
Gold) Tom Dumoulin (The Netherlands) 44:14
Silver) Primoz Roglic (Slovenia) +0:57
Bronze) Chris Froome (Great Britain) +1:21
29) Hugo Houle (Canada) +3:06
48) Rob Britton (Canada) +4:57