Cycling Road World Championships 2015: Sunday Results, Times, Updated Schedule
BMC Racing and Velocio won the first gold medals of the 2015 Cycling Road World Championships on Sunday in Richmond, Virginia, comfortably taking the win in the team time-trial events.
Etixx-QuickStep and Boels Dolmans both kept it close, nearly shocking the pre-race favourites, but as expected, both BMC and Velocio pulled through when it mattered the most. Here are the results from Sunday's action:
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
| 1 | Velocio-SRAM | 0:47:35 |
| 2 | Boels Dolmans | 0:00:06 |
| 3 | Rabo Liv | 0:00:56 |
| 4 | Wiggle Honda | 0:01:10 |
| 5 | Twenty 16 p/b Sho-Air | 0:02:04 |
| 6 | UnitedHealthcare | 0:02:51 |
| 7 | Orica-AIS | 0:02:54 |
| 8 | BTC City LjubIjana | 0:03:02 |
The updated schedule:
| Sep 21 | Junior Women TT |
| U23 Men TT | |
| Sep 22 | Junior Men TT |
| Elite Women TT | |
| Sep 23 | Elite Men TT |
| Sep 25 | Junior Women |
| U23 Men | |
| Sep 26 | Junior Men |
| Elite Women | |
| Sep 27 | Elite Men |
The team time trials have always been a bit of an odd event given that the riders aren't representing their respective countries but rather the teams that sign their paychecks. Over the years, several teams have specialised in the event, with the likes of BMC Racing and Orica GreenEdge showing their ability in this year's Grand Tours.
BMC in particular have looked very strong in 2015, and unsurprisingly, they led the race from start to finish on their way to the gold medal. Etixx-QuickStep didn't make things easy on the American outfit, however, per Cycling Weekly's Michael Hutchinson:
The final climb seemed to trouble a lot of the teams and almost cost BMC the gold medal. Stefan Kung couldn't keep up with his team-mates—something we saw throughout the day. Orica GreenEdge even finished with just four riders and dropped out of the medals altogether.
In the women's team race, Velocio predictably defended their title, narrowly beating Boels Dolmans thanks to a great performance in the final sector. It was the team's fourth consecutive title, and per cycling commentator Jose Been, the win shouldn't come as a surprise at this point:
This year's race was extremely close, however. Boels Dolmans found an incredible burst of pace in the third sector and stole the lead from Velocio, who rode much of the final sector with just four riders.
Forced to make up seven seconds, the German outfit rallied, powered through and made the difference on the final climb, where Boels Dolmans lost plenty of time.
As shared by Canadian Cyclist, Karol-Ann Canuel was the fourth Velocio rider over the line, and her state after the race showed just exactly how deep the team had to go:
Velocio have already announced the team will be disbanding at the end of this season, per Cycling News, so Sunday's win will be the last major triumph of one of the most successful women's teams the sport has ever seen.
Meanwhile, Evelyn Steven of Boels Dolmans believes the Dutch outfit is on the right track, per Cycling News:
"I'm really proud of how my team raced today. We had a puncture in the first 5k with Christine, so that was just bad luck. I think we could have gotten down because of that. But were were in contention for the whole race, I had teammates go so deep to fight to stay in. Six seconds is sad, but we're there. It's a matter of doing a few things differently.
"
The 2015 Cycling Road World Championships will continue on Monday with two more time-trial events, the Junior Women and Under-23 Men's competitions. The time trials conclude on Wednesday with the Elite Men's category, with the road races set to start on Friday.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
