A VB utolsó előtti napja a női elit, azaz a felnőtt mezőny versenyéről szólt. Nagyon sűrű nap volt ez nekünk sok utazással, mivel a verseny nem a Pearl-ben kezdődött, hanem a város másik végén – a logisztikáról a szervezők nagyon profi módon gondoskodtak. Eddig még nem látott képeink, a verseny vidós összefoglalója és a dobogósok nyilatkozatai alább!
Nem az évszázad legizgalmasabb versenye volt ez, de hát ilyen is van néha. Már az is nagy teljesítmény volt, hogy valaki nem szakadt le vagy nem kapott hőgutát, és be tudta fejezni a versenyt. Magyar induló nem volt, így – többé-kevésbé 😉 – pártatlanul tudtuk követni az eseményeket, természetesen mezőnyhajrával számolva.
Amire, pontosabban akire nem gondoltunk, az Dideriksen volt. Rendben, hatalmas tehetség, gyorslábú, de ezen a pályán, ebben a mezőnyben nem vártuk még dobogóra sem. Nem csak mi, de a többi fotós sem, akivel erről előzetesen beszéltünk. De mindegy is, a lényeg az, hogy a fiatal dán lány sokkolta a mezőnyt és megnyerte a hajrát, míg Wildnek be kellett érnie az ezüsttel, Lepistö pedig egy fantasztikus évet megkoronázva bronzérmet szerzett.
“I felt pretty great for the entire race. I had amazing teammates, we had only a team of three girls that was not so many, but they kept bringing me bottles so that I did not have to go into feeding zone. When I crashed, they brought me back. I have to say a big thank you to the girls. It’s a World Championships, it’s a really hard race. I just try to stay calm, be in front of the peloton and not to waste to much energy. To outsprint Kirsten Wild in the end I couldn’t believe it, something I never dreamed of. She’s a world class sprinter. It’s unbelievable. I hoped for top-ten when I came to race. I’m only twenty years old and it was a goal for future. To be able to take it now is unbelievable. I still have lots of dreams. My goal was to win these stripes. I want to be more consistent in my rides. I want to be a top-class sprinter. My aim is to take an Olympic medal as well.”
“I crashed early in the race, but there was not much panic, I think we said it’s all fine and let’s go again. We were a strong team, it would have been a bit stupid to wait for the sprint, because these girls are so strong. If we attack we could probably isolate the other strong teams like, the Australians, the Belgians, so it was the plan to isolate the other girls while we still would have a big squad to do the lead-out in the end. For us this course is like Holland, only the fields in Holland are green instead of yellow, and the cows are camels here. That’s not really a secret. I looked behind when we started the last corner, and I saw Amalie in my wheel and I thought it’s going to be a hard one, because she’s really strong. We had only two girls in front so I knew it would be hard. I was a little bit early, but she was really strong and got me in the last metres. Of course I hope to win the gold medal. That’s the same for everybody I guess. I have to say that I’m a bit disappointed. We did a very good, strong race with the team. I can’t blame anything but myself.”
“We had a four-rider team today, my team is one of the strongest in the field. They showed me today that they have this national spirit. They did everything for me today. I needed to be careful if there was a breakaway. There was one moment where it was dangerous, so I had to use my power there. But I think I managed well to save myself. Last few kilometres I just thought: hold the wheel, hold the wheel, don’t give up. And I was exploding with only 200 metres to go. I knew I have to go sprint as fast as I could. Of course I’m proud of that. We got medal already in the Team Time Trial. And I was capable to have my own individual medal and I’m really happy about that. Well the Word Championships are in Norway next year. I heard that it’s a hard course and I want to do everything to win there, and of course it would be fun to win Flanders.”
A dohai világbajnokságon való részvételünket a Mesterbike segített megvalósítani.
