Email: info@procyclinguk.com

ProCyclingUK 2024 Logo Alternate

Women’s World Championship Time Trial 2020 Preview – Tips, Contenders, Profile

This year’s Cycling World Championships are taking place at Imola in Italy. The Coronavirus crisis enforced a move from Switzerland to Italy and a course involving the Imola race circuit. Formerly used in Formula 1 and famous for the death place of champion Ayrton Senna, Imola is handily placed next to a decent hill too. The Women’s TT course doesn’t go over the hill but the course is generally undulating. The course rises 60 metres before gently rolling back down again. It will suit all-rounders best over than the out and out power merchants though.

Recent Winners

2019 Chloe Dygert-Owen
2018
Annemiek van Vleuten
2017
Annemiek van Vleuten
2016
Amber Neben
2015 – Linda Villumsen

TV Coverage

Live on BBC Red Button & Eurosport

Thursday 24th September
13:30-16:00 (BST)

Women’s World Championship Time Trial 2020 Profile

Women’s World Championship Time Trial 2020 Favourites

From one of the less obvious cycling nations, Belarussian Alena Amialsiuk finished in 9th place during last year’s race in Yorkshire. She’s been a solid domestique in 2020 but her best result has been 8th in the European Championships TT. Another unfancied nation represented is Uzbekistan. The former Russian Olga Zabelinskaya will be taking part. She’s not done an individual TT since last year’s World Champs where she finished a disappointing 27th place. You only have to go back to 2016 to find her best finish of 4th though.

The French pair of Audrey Cordon-Ragot and Juliette Labous are decent contenders. Labous won the national TT ahead of Cordon-Ragot. However, Cordon-Ragot has been in great form since, winning the national road race and a stage of the Tour de l’Ardeche. There is a question mark about how she is after her Ardeche crash and a quiet Giro Rosa which she quit on Stage 6. Juliette Labous won the national TT and then finished 6th in the Euro Champs. Between them, one should make the top 10 here.

Hour record holder Vittoria Bussi only really races TTs at the top level but she does well. She just missed out on a maiden national TT, finishing 10 seconds behind Elisa Longo Borghini. She was 5th in this year’s Euros too. Swiss rider Marlen Reusser was 3rd in the Euros and won the Swiss national TT in her first race after lockdown. She’s looked strong in the recent races, assisting teammates going for wins. Lisa Brennauer is a former World TT Champion but that was back in 2014. She’s not won a medal in this event since 2015. Last year she was 10th, but she scored a great 4th in this year’s European Championships against a similar field. She’s a staple top-10 finisher.

Vittoria Bussi

The Dutch have a pair of podium favourites in Anna van der Breggen and Ellen van Dijk. This is one of the few top races that Anna van der Breggen has never won. She’s got 4 Worlds TT silver medals in her collection and is now the European Champion, maybe this turns out to be the year. Ellen van Dijk has won this race before, way back in 2013. She’s got a full set of medals having finished 2nd in 2016 and 3rd in 2018. Anna van der Breggen beat her in the Euros this year, ending a run of 4 straight victories.

Chloe Dygert is the reigning champion after a truly dominant performance in last year’s race. She was gearing up for the Tokyo Olympics that were scheduled to happen this year. So she’s got no major results on the road to gauge form from. She’s still going to be a major favourite though. Amber Neben took 4th place in Yorkshire at 44 years old. She’s another with no results to speak of in 2020 but it’ll be interesting to see how she fares.

Big names missing out

Annemiek van Vleuten (1st in 2019)
Lisa Klein (5th in 2019)
Leah Thomas (7th in 2019)
Lucinda Brand (8th in 2019)
Amanda Spratt (11th in 2019)
Elisa Longo Borghini (17th in 2019)
Ashleigh Moolman (32nd in 2019)
Lotte Kopecky (2x National TT champion)

Women’s World Championship Time Trial 2020 Outsiders

Anna Kiesenhofer was only 20th in last year’s Worlds but she’s had a great 2020 season. She won the National TT for the 2nd year in a row, finished 11th in the Euros and then had a great Tour de l’Ardeche. She didn’t quite win a stage but finished 2nd and 4th on her way to 3rd place overall. British hopes lie with Alice Barnes. She was 16th last year in Yorkshire and does well in European level TTs usually. She’s in good form too after finishing 2nd and 4th in the Tour de l’Ardeche recently. The top-10 would be a good result for her.

The Canadians have a chance of a decent result. Leah Kirchmann was 4th only a couple of years ago in 2018. Since then she’s only done 2 TTs, the National TT which she won and the one in the Giro Rosa where she finished 117th. Solid other results include 11th in the GP de Plouay recently. Karol-Ann Canuel also did well in the 2018 Worlds, finishing 8th. She was 12th last year and is another outside bet to reach the top-10. Her best recent result was 9th in Strade Bianche.

Race Prediction

1st
Anna van der Breggen
2nd
Chloe Dygert
3rd
Ellen van Dijk