True champions warm up under an umbrella

As I wrote earlier today the weather had been great ever since Monday morning, but when the second group of the Elite Women started, the first rain drops started to fall. It never went too hard, but still enough to make the roads wet. That meant that all the late starters had to warm up in wet condition, well make that everyone except one. Because while her teammate Ina Teutenberg warmed up in the rain, future World Champion Judith Arndt found a way to warm up in a dry way - see my tweets for the picture!

That turned out to be a good idea when Judith Arndt later on set the best time and that even without knowing how the other riders had been doing. “I didn’t even know my own time. I had no radio, I don’t really like riding with that. I want to concentrate fully on my own race without any outside contact”, she said on the press conference afterwards. Indeed a great tactic on the day!

It also turned out to be another great race for Denmark as we got the second medal on the day, or to be fair we didn’t really officially get it, but everybody knows Linda Villumsen is Danish despite her representing New Zealand nowadays. Linda did a great race and took silver, a medal she describe to be 50% Danish and 50% New Zealand on the press conference.

On third place Emma Pooley switched out her rainbow jersey from last year with a bronze medal and she was actually very content with the day. “I hoped to make the top10 so I am very satisfied even though it’s a shame no longer to be the World Champion. Denmark is just too flat for me”, Pooley pointed out afterwards.
Now we only one thing left to do in the city centre of Copenhagen and that is the Elite Men Time Trial tomorrow. Germany showed the way today with Judith Arndt and according to the bookmakers, Tony Martin is now the favorite for the gold medal.

Check back soon for more World Champions updates and remember to follow me on Twitter (www.twitter.com/mrconde) for live-updates, pictures and comments.

Ciao!

Danish gold!

It’s kind of amazing I must say… Last Thursday both Danish hopes for the Elite Road Race (Matti Breschel & Alex Rasmussen) were out and the weather forecast said “rain, rain rain”. Now it’s Thuesday and we two Danish medals and absolutely no sign of the rain!

The Danish gold went to young Mads Wurtz Schmidt who won the Men Junior’s time trial and really seemed surprised at the press conference. “Well, to be honest this is a huge surprise for me”, he said. “My goal this morning was top10 so ending up with the rainbow jersey is just simply amazing”.

In a little less than an hour the Elite Women start their time trial and this could very well be the first time during this World Champions that we don’t get an Australian rider on the podium. The big favorites are Judith Arndt, Emma Pooley, Amber Neben, Marianne Vos and Danish Linda Villumsen (who know rides for New Zealand) so it really requires some extra from Taryn Heather if she wants to continue to Aussie dominance…

Come back later for more info!