Fifty minutes, twenty-four seconds and forty-four hundredths for 39.2 kilometres. Zoe Bäckstedt second at 40 seconds, Franziska Koch third at 45. Bäckstedt, riding her first Worlds, was ahead of Reusser at the first two intermediate checks; the Swiss rider went faster over the second half of the course.
The interesting part came at the microphone. “We hardly ever ride a time trial that long. We’re used to 20 kilometres. I had some serious discussions with my team about what a good plan would be,” she told Sporza. And then: “Up until an hour ago I was still in two minds, and even during the time trial I wasn’t fully convinced. It was a challenge, yes.”
An hour before the start she was still unsure about the plan. That, I know. On Sunday we leave the square at twenty past nine with a plan, and the plan changes at the first headwind, which we get both ways. My plan fits in two lines and I change it at kilometre three. I’m not saying I hold that pace for 39 kilometres. I’m saying the discussion she had with her team, I had it on my own, three times, before the crossroads.
On the Belgian side, Lotte Kopecky took sixth in 52:17 and Lotte Claes eleventh in 52:34. No Belgian on the podium.
Reusser also turned 35 on Sunday. “It’s a lovely present, but I said to myself: ‘Win or not, I can celebrate anyway,’” she told Sporza.
“Celebrate anyway” is the club rule, word for word. The coffee at the finish is decided before we set off, it doesn’t depend on the computer. What changes is the number of coffees and the length of the argument. Last time, at the café we argued till noon and nobody had won anything.
It’s true, we checked: Sporza.
