The Cervélo TestTeam maintained its 100% record in the World Cup time trial, taking victory in Vårgårda, Sweden. The Dutch registered team finished 1’08” faster than second place HTC-Columbia, with Nederland Bloeit 2’25” behind in third place.
“We all rode the same pace today and that was the key to our success,” said Cervélo TestTeam rider Regina Bruins. “Everybody did the right job and I am really proud we won again.”
“It was a very successful time trial for us,” said Egon van Kessel, Cervélo TestTeam Sports Director. “We trained a few times on the course when the weather was really good. But today it changed to rain and wind. This year’s team was very strong technically and I am very proud of them. We had more than a minute on HTC-Columbia and more than 2 minutes on third place Nederland Bloeit. So actually, we were much stronger.
“We did miss Elizabeth Armitstead today," he added, "but Emma Pooley, who replaced her at the last moment and hadn’t trained as much with these riders did an excellent job. Now we go on to the road race on Sunday. We know the course it is more or less the same as today’s course. It is not really that hard but it will be exciting. Kirsten Wild is in good shape so we will go for the victory again, which I expect will come from a group sprint by a select group.”
The first team to start was Hitec Products UCK, the Norwegian team posted a time of 1h 00’09”, which was to stand for more than half an hour until the Leontien.nl team were the first to go under an hour with 58’02”.
The Dutch team’s time was to stand until compatriot Nederland Bloeit, third from last to start, went more than two minutes faster. Nederland Bloeit, led by Dutch time trial champion and World Cup leader Marianne Vos, managed to go just 3 seconds faster than Leontien.nl to take provisional first place.
HTC-Columbia immediately knocked Vos’ team off the top of the podium, with a time of 56’42”; but the German-registered team was, in turn, beaten into second by its big rival Cervélo TestTeam.
With the 35 points for being a member of the winning team, Becker moves up to second place in the World Cup standings. Vos still holds a commanding 70-point lead in the season-long competition though, with just Sunday’s Vårgårda road race and the Grand Prix Plouay to come.
The Cervélo TestTeam also moves ahead of HTC-Columbia in the team standings.
Result Open de Suède Vårgårda
1. Cervélo TestTeam (Ned) 55’34”
(Charlotte Becker, Regina Bruins, Iris Slappendel, Kirsten Wild)
2. HTC-Columbia (Ger) @ 1’08”
(Judith Arndt, Linda Villumsen, Ellen Van Dijk, Adrie Visser)
3. Nederland Bloeit (Ned) @ 2’25”
(Liesbet De Vocht, Loes Gunnewijk, Annemiek Van Vleuten, Marianne Vos)
4. Leontien.nl (Ned) @ 2’28”
(Chantal Blaak, Andrea Bosman, Lucinda Brand, Irene Van Den Broek)
5. Great Britain (GBr) @ 2’52”
(Katie Colclough, Nicole Cooke, Lucy Martin, Emma Trott)
6. Australia (Aus) @ 3’23”
(Ruth Corset, Shara Gillow, Amber Halliday, Alexis Rhodes)
7. RedSun Cycling Team (Bel) @ 3’35”
(Latoya Brulee, Emma Johansson, Marie Lindberg, Mascha Pijnenborg)
8. Hitec Products UCK (Nor) @ 4’35”
(Maria Grandt Petersen, Sara Mustonen, Kristine Saastad, Trine Schmidt)
9. Ukraine (Ukr) @ 4’41”
(Svitlana Galyuk, Lesya Kalitovska, Valeriya Kononenko, Hanna Solovey)
10. Lotto Ladies Team (Bel) @ 4’55”
(Ashleigh Moolman, Kim Schoonbaert, Grace Verbeke, Vicki Whitelaw)
World Cup standings after 7 rounds
1. Marianne Vos (Ned) Nederland Bloeit 210pts
2. Charlotte Becker (Ger) Cervélo TestTeam 140
3. Emma Johansson (Swe) RedSun Cycling Team 139
4. Grace Verbeke (Bel) Lotto Ladies Team 134
5. Judith Arndt (Ger) HTC-Columbia 131
Team standings
1. Cervélo TestTeam (Ned) 485pts
2. HTC-Columbia (Ger) 479
3. Nederland Bloeit (Ned) 391
4. RedSun Cycling Team (Bel) 200
5. Lotto Ladies Team (Bel) 176