Pooley stormed ahead of the competition to win her first international road title by beating Germany’s Judith Arndt by 15 seconds with a time of 32 minutes 48 seconds. The Londoner managed to keep her cool despite having to change her bike moments before the start after officials found a problem with it.
Disappointment for Cantele
She came over to Australia earlier this year in February to recce the course and it paid off as she mastered the difficult lumpy circuit. Pooley then had a tense wait after her run while the other seven riders had to come in including Noemi Cantele, who finished second in that time-trial and third in the road race at last year’s event.
Her result will go some way to making up for the disappointment suffered in the men’s under-23 time-trial when Alex Dowsett damaged his bike by skidding through a corner and was forced to change it.
Pooley’s Successful Year
The Brit has had a great year already winning the British Road Championships and the Fleche Wallonne. This is the first time she has won a gold medal on the international stage; she came close before with silver in the 2008 Olympic Road Race. She will also compete in Saturday’s Road Race joined by teammates Nicole Cooke and Lizzie Armitstead.
Cantele came will be very disappointed in her performance crossing the line in ninth, but was bumped down to twelfth after the last rider came in. The Italian came in to this event as hot favourite after Kristin Armstrong decided to pull out after she had a child just two weeks ago.
This year was the first time that talkback radios were allowed in all categories which Pooley says is a definite aid in the time-trial.
Arndt Fights Back
Arndt was the last rider to hit the road and managed to squeeze in to second despite being down on third place Linda Melanie Villumsen of New Zealand in the early check points. She was nine seconds down on Pooley in fourth after the first check point. The world number three turned up the wick in the last couple of kilometres and even passed Alexis Rhodes, who started ahead of her, but it wasn’t enough to beat the Brit.
Rhodes looked visibly disappointed after she just scraped in to the top 20 in front of her home crowd. Australia’s top placing was Shara Gillow who finished in 8th with a time of 34 minutes 01 seconds.
Fifth place Jeannie Longo is the oldest competitor in all events and is the current French time-trial champion at the age of 51.
The women’s road race will take place around Geelong on Saturday with a start time of 13:00 local time.
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