Brilliantly executed time trial by Reusser shatters World Championship hopes for Van der Breggen and Vollering in Rwanda

As always at championships, the first hour was almost exclusively reserved for the lesser goddesses of the peloton. The unknown women from usually less prominent cycling countries fought it out among themselves, allowing cycling fans to get a close look at the challenging course.

The Côte de Nyanza was central to this, with a climb from the 2.5-kilometer side at an average gradient of 5.8 percent, followed by a descent and then the climb of the 4.1-kilometer side at an average gradient of 3.1 percent. From there, it was downhill to the Côte de Kimihurura, which, at 1.3 kilometers, had an average gradient of 6.3 percent and nasty cobblestones, marking the start of the uphill finish.

We knew what the times of all those unknown women were worth when Van der Breggen appeared as the first serious name on the starting podium. Accompanied by an enthusiastic crowd, it soon became clear that the intermediate times from the first hour were not nearly fast enough. Norway's Sigrid Ytterhus Haugset was the fastest everywhere, but that did not last long.

Van der Breggen stormed through Rwanda like a hurricane and crushed Haugset's seemingly fast times. At the first intermediate point, she was already 50 seconds under the fastest time, and at the second intermediate point, she was already 1.31 minutes ahead. Just how fast that was became clear from the split times of Kasia Niewiadoma, who was already a minute and a half behind Van der Breggen at the second measuring point.

At the third intermediate point and at the finish, the trend between Van der Breggen and Haugset continued. The Dutch rider first beat the Norwegian by 1.53 minutes and was ultimately 2.23 minutes (!) faster at the finish. A serious target time, which other favorites such as Reusser, Chloé Dygert, and Vollering still had to match.

It soon became clear that it could be even faster, because when everyone had passed the first intermediate point, Van der Breggen was only in sixth place. Reusser was already 15 seconds faster, but Vollering kept pace at only seven tenths. At the second intermediate point - after two-thirds of the time trial - Reusser had already extended her lead over Van der Breggen to 28 seconds.

After Reusser lost a few seconds of her lead over Van der Breggen at the third checkpoint, it looked like it was going to be a close call. But the Swiss rider from Movistar had paced herself perfectly and saved her energy for the grueling cobbled climb and uphill finish. At the finish, she was suddenly 51 seconds faster than Van der Breggen, who saw the rest of the field collapse one by one along the way.

So she could hope for a medal, just like Vollering. She started just as fast as Reusser, but couldn't keep up that pace. At the second intermediate point, Vollering, like Van der Breggen, was 28 seconds slower. Dygert was particularly disappointing, already 1.23 minutes slower than Reusser. The competition for the podium came from Anna Henderson (GB) and Aalerud for the Netherlands.

However, the Australian Brodie Chapman proved to have paced her time trial excellently, just like Reusser. With a superb final climb, she recorded the third-fastest time behind Reusser and Van der Breggen. Only Vollering could still do something about this, and she succeeded. She finished 16 seconds ahead of Chapman to take bronze, putting the podium in orange behind Reusser.