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World Championships - CM
Stuttgart, Germany, September 26-30, 2007
Main Page Results & report Race Details Previous Race Next Race
Race 2 - September 26: Women's time trial - 2 laps, 25.1km
Complete live report
Live commentary by Susan Westemeyer
Live coverage starts: 14:30 CEST
Estimated finish: 16:00 CEST
And welcome back after brief break. Cyclingnews will now bring you live coverage of the second race of the day, which is the women's time trial. Can American Kristin Armstrong defend her title? We will get the answer to you soon.
14:34 CEST
We are back on the road again. After
the exciting U23 race this morning we took a little break and now we're ready
to follow the ladies as they take on this challenging time trial course.
14:36 CEST
Oenone Wood of Australia leaves the
starting ramp.
It's only 25.14 km for the women, two laps
of the round course, with all of those same ups and downs the youngsters had
this morning. The weather held up this morning, with sunshine instead of rain,
so let's hope that luck continues.
14:37 CEST
And the next rider to go is Jeannie
Long, who is 48 years old. We admit that we are closer to her age than to those
youngsters this morning -- you go, girlfriend!
14:40 CEST
Right now we gave Hanka Kupfernagel
of Germany in first place with a time of 34'43". Amber Neben of the US is second
with 35'46". Canadian Anne Samölonius is third at 36'13".
It has
warmed up this afternoon, all the way up to 13°. (We won't yet turn on the air
conditioning in our nifty little Mercedes SLK 55 AMG.) There are more clouds
that earlier, but there are great hopes that it will stay dry.
14:43 CEST
The Chinese rider Meifang Li is having
a hard time of it out there -- just looking at her we can feel her pain!
14:45 CEST
Kupfernagel is leading at all of
the intermediate time checks, of which there are three: at kms 5, 12 and 18.
Her name, by the way, translates to English as "copper nail".
14:49 CEST
Germany's Charlotte Becker comes
through the 12 km time check in fourth place, at 17.16. Her teammate Kupfernagel
sits in the leader's chair at the finish and checks out a text message on her
mobile phone.
14:52 CEST
Our Chinese rider isn't doing so
badly at all. She crosses the finish line for the first time with the third
fastest time. Will she be able to keep it up in the second lap?
14:54 CEST
At the 12 km time mark Longo comes
in with the sixth best time.
14:56 CEST
Alison Powers of the US is approaching
the finish line. The US kit have a rather Spider-Man look to them.....
14:57 CEST
Becker has dropped significantly.
At the 18 km checkpoint she is only 10th.
14:58 CEST
Will the winner today be named Armstrong?
No, no, not that one! He's retired and besides, he's a man!
How about
Kristin Armstrong -- the one that was never married to him. She has to be one
of the favourites because she was the winner last year. No American has ever
won consecutive titles in the Worlds, and she sure would like to be the first.
14:59 CEST
Sara Carrigan grimaces as she crosses
the finish line in 7th place, at 37.13, which is 2.30 down.
15:00 CEST
Christiane Soeder of Austria takes
to the course. She is the first rider in the last group, which means there are
only 10 more to go.
15:02 CEST
Li crosses the line in third place,
at 36.21. By the way, she is wearing a borrowed T-Mobile helmet, with all the
names taped over, of course, but we still recognise those magenta stripes!
And Longo is now in third place at the 18 km checkpoint.
15:04 CEST
The last ten women are starting a
minute and a half apart. We are rushing around trying to cover all aspects,
so we don't always get to see each one on the starting ramp.
15:06 CEST
Emma Pooley of Great Britain is on
the course. She rides for the small Swiss team Specialized. She recently placed
fourth in the Chrono Champenois in France. Her goal is a top ten finish, so
that GB will qualify for an Olympic spot. Check our out interview with her today
on the CN homepage.
15:09 CEST
Germany's Becker's long blonde ponytail
slaps her back as she crosses the finish line in 8th place, 2'14" down with
a time of 36'58".
15:10 CEST
Priska Doppmann of Switzerland takes
the start. She is not as heavily favoured as her teammate Karin Thürig, who
starts in a few minutes.
15:10 CEST
Another Spider Woman, we mean American,
is on the course: Christine Thorburn.
15:11 CEST
Her teammate Kristin Armstrong takes
a final drink and relaxes for a minute before she climbs on her bike and makes
her way to the start.
15:13 CEST
Edita Pucinskaite of Lithuania is
on her way. She recently crashed out of a race with a crash coming out of the
time trial starting house -- you can be sure she was extra careful today!
15:14 CEST
Thürig is on the way. She was 2005
World Champion. Next comes Armstrong who was 2006 World Champion. And Thorburn
was 2006 third place finisher -- this is a talented bunch of ladies!
15:16 CEST
Armstrong takes off, so the end is
in sight -- so to speak.
The clouds seem to have gotten the upper
hand and it is clearly cool. Not only are the onlookers all bundled up but Thürig
is wearing leg warmers.
15:17 CEST
Soeder approaches the 12 km time
check and crosses through it in second place.
15:18 CEST
Austria didn't win any medals in
its World Championships last year, and they would love to get one in the races
here by their neighbour to the north.
15:20 CEST
Our heroine Longo has finished in
second place! Now she, Kupfernagel and Neben are having a nice chat in the winners'
circle -- and they are all bundled up in long pants and jackets.
15:20 CEST
Whoops, lets change that to third
place for Longo!
15:22 CEST
Well, well -- Armstrong is only third
at the 5 km time check. At 6'38", she is 9 seconds down.
15:24 CEST
Mirjam Melcher of the Netherlands
would love to imitate her younger countryman, but it looks unlikely. At the
halfway point she is only in sixth place, with a time of 17:17.
15:25 CEST
Soeder is at the 18 km mark, and
is second there, about a half a minute slower than Kupfernagel.
15:30 CEST
the 33 year old Kupfernagel looks
like she will win a medal here. It wouldn't be her first title this year. She
is currently German champion in Cross, in time trial and in Cross-Mountain biking.
And did we mention that she is first in he UCI's world rankings for Cross for
he 06-07 season?
15:31 CEST
Are the leg warmers slowing Thürig
down? She came through the 12 km mark all the way down in 5th place, nearly
40 whole seconds behind Kupfernagel.
15:32 CEST
Armstrong can't catch the German
at the halfway point either. She is second with a time of 16.42.
Kupfernagel can hardly believe it -- she looks at the times and shakes her head
in disbelief.
15:36 CEST
Soeder comes to the end line and
its ...... second place for her!
She is still nearly 42 seconds slower
than Kupfernagel, at 35.25.
The German still can't believe it.
15:37 CEST
Armstrong is the only one on the
course now and the only one who could knock Kupfernagel off the top position.
But even that seems unlikely now.
15:38 CEST
Of course, there are still 10 women
on the course, but most of them don't have a chance at the top spot.
Make that 9 women -- Susanne Ljungskog just finished, in sixth place.
15:40 CEST
Emma Pooley, with the Union Jack
on her back, comes in fifth, at 36'16". Will she be able to hold on to a top
ten spot?
15:41 CEST
It looks like Armstrong won't repeat.
She hits the 18 km mark in second place, but she is now 21 seconds down.
15:42 CEST
Thorburn's short blonde ponytail
is lying flat. Will the American win an other medal this year?
15:42 CEST
The orange-clad Melchers finishes
seventh, about 1.49 behind Kupfernagel.
15:43 CEST
Still five riders to come in. We
wouldn't like to measure Kupfernagel's blood pressure at this point.
15:45 CEST
Zabirova of Kazakhstan looks tired
as she crosses the finish line in 7th place.
Doppman is the next
to come in and she is fourth, with a time just ahead of Longo's.
15:46 CEST
Doppmann struggles to catch her breath
and cope with her disappointment at not finishing higher.
15:47 CEST
Thorburn won't repeat as a medal
winner, either. She finishes fourth 1'11" behind Kupfernagel.
15:47 CEST
The German stares at a TV screen.
Is she sending mental waves to Armstrong to go slowler?
15:48 CEST
Kupfernagel is so nervous and excited,
she doesn't know what to do.
15:49 CEST
Kupfernagel's fingernails have now
been sacrificed.... nibbled away anxiously.
15:50 CEST
Thürig will also be very disappointed
as she comes in 8th.
15:51 CEST
Kupfernagel springs to her feet and
hugs her boyfriend with mixed tears and joy as Armstrong crosses the finish
line 23 seconds slower than her.
15:52 CEST
The Americans finished with three
in the top five, but it was the German Hanka Kupfernagel who took the top prize.
That's the first medal for the home team and it will only have whetted their
appetite.
15:53 CEST
Thanks for joining us again. We hope
you will be with us again tomorrow when the men take to this course. Will they
be able to deliver a race fill with so much suspense and so many upsets?
Provisional standings - Finish at km 25.1 1 Hanka Kupfernagel (Germany) 34.43 (43.380 km/h) 2 Kristin Armstrong (United States Of America) 35.07 3 Christiane Soeder (Austria) 35.25 4 Amber Neben (United States Of America) 35.46 5 Christine Thorburn (United States Of America) 35.57 6 Priska Doppmann (Switzerland) 36.00 7 Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli (France) 36.05 8 Emma Pooley (Great Britain) 36.15 9 Karin Thürig (Switzerland) 36.18 10 Meifang Li (People's Republic of China) 36.21 11 Mirjam Melchers-Van Poppel (Netherlands) 12 Zulfiya Zabirova (Kazakhstan) 13 Susanne Ljungskog (Sweden)
