Anna van der Breggen is the new world time trial champion

The 2020 UCI Road World Championships began on Thursday with the elite women’s time trial, won by Anna van der Breggen, who was silver medalist for three years in a row and four out of the last five editions. Van der Breggen adds the gold medal to her 2018 road race title and her 2016 Olympic Games victory. American Chloe Dygart, the reigning champion, crashed out dramatically. The top Canadian was Leah Kirchmann in 21st, with Karol-Ann Canuel right behind her in 22nd.

???? She's done it! ????@AnnavdBreggen is ITT World Champion!! pic.twitter.com/Baz30Xfcet

— UCI (@UCI_cycling) September 24, 2020

At the beginning of the month the World Championships were switched to Imola, Italy from Aigle-Martigny, Switzerland and streamlined to elite riders only.

The Course

The elite women had 31.7 km of rolling roads to ride. There was a headwind at the beginning and tailwind after the first intermediate check point. Fifty-one riders assailed the course, but the 2017 and 2018 champion Annemiek van Vleuten was out with a broken wrist suffered in the Giro Rosa. She would, however, race Saturday’s road course.

Here are today’s course details for the women’s World Individual Time Trial Championships. ?

Action kicks off at 14.40hrs CET, with defending champion @chloedygert30 rolling off the start ramp at 15.55hrs CET. ?

Full start list: https://t.co/dCrSMQz0ol ⏰ https://t.co/3eHBSNQWWn

— UCI_WWT (@UCI_WWT) September 24, 2020

An early rider was Canada’s Karol-Ann Canuel. She was 12th last year in Yorkshire and 8th at Innsbruck 2018.

Canuel posted the third fastest time at the first intermediate check point and finished at 43:06.85.

The first woman to finish was the Ukraine’s Valeriya Kononenko with 43:51.51. Dane Emma Norsgaard Jorgensen crushed the course in 41:42.26.

Leah Kirchmann wore her 13 upside down.

Aussie Grace Brown tossed Jorgensen from the hot seat with a time of 41:21.34.

Reigning champ Chloe Dygart was flying on the course, but crashed over a barrier in a right hand turn and had to withdraw with a big cut on her leg.

Ellen van Dijk, the 2013 titlist, knocked Brown from the hot seat with 40:51.50.

Van Dijk’s compatriot van der Breggen and Swiss rider Marlen Reusser were locked in a pitched battle on the roads. Reusser stopped the clock at 40:35.72, but van der Breggen would not be denied. The Dutch have now won three of the last four time trials.

The elite men’s chrono is on Friday.

2020 Elite Women’s Time Trial
1) Anna van der Breggen (The Netherlands) 40:20
2) Marlen Reusser (Switzerland) +0:15
3) Ellen van Dijk (The Netherlands) +0:31
21) Leah Kirchmann (Canada) +2:34
22) Karol-Ann Canuel (Canada) +2:46