World Road Championships 2012 – Day Three; U23 Time Trial World Championship

The party’s over following the U23 Time Trial World Championship, there’s no more nice wee room in Valkenburg and ambling down for breakfast, with the patron asking if you’d like a fried egg to go with your rolls, cheese and ham.

Its camper van time – but at least I won’t have that four kilometre forced march to the press room, we can drive.

There were two races today, the junior time trial and the U23 time trial.

When you’re at the Worlds, you have to decide what you’re going to write about, bearing in mind what the reader wants to read.

No disrespect to the junior races but it’s not going to get most folks ‘clicking’ – so I allowed the junior race to run its course whilst I wrote up a piece on the Cauberg.

The Cauberg isn’t the biggest hill in the world, it’s not that steep or long, but it tears races apart – the TTT was a good example, there were riders getting fired out the back, left right and centre.

It’ll be the same on Sunday – no doubt.

The U23 time trial was a good race, the suspense held to the end with the Russian Anton Vorobyev upsetting the form book by beating pre-race favourite, Rohan Dennis.

The Danish rider Lasse Norman Hansen, who won the omnium at the London Olympics, was leading with another 21 riders still to start.

It looked as if the Danes might dominate; he displaced team mate and long term leader Rasmus Sterebo, with last year’s silver medal winner, Rasmus Quaade still to come.

But board flat Copenhagen isn’t lumpy Limburg with those nasty hills; this course is about flexibility, not just battering a mega gear.

Albeit Hansen is a beast of a boy, at the Copenhagen Six Day back in February, our mechanic Dirk asked him what gear he wanted to use in the time trials – ‘50 x 13‘ said the Dane.

‘But you’re only 20 years-old’ pleaded Dirk, but Hansen got his way and duly won the time trial every night.

Hansen held the lead for a long time, right up until Aussie Damien Howson finished, just two seconds faster.

The rider who was expected to ‘do the biz’ came and went – Bob Jungels who’s had an excellent season, winning two top quality stage races.

He won the Fleche du Sud in Luxembourg and the Triptyque des Monts et Chateaux – both are death races.

I interviewed Jungels when he won the junior Worlds TT in 2010 and was struck by the level of professionalism around him.

His website was as good if not better than most pros and he had a coaching team around him which would do Sky proud. But this wasn’t ‘his’ day.

And then it was Vorobyev, he looks like the Russian bears from the Milk Race days of yore.

But those boys wouldn’t want to ride a trendy Canyon TT bike (even though it does look like a re-badged Trek Speed Concept to me) they’d want battered gas tubing Colnagos.

It was apparent that Dennis wasn’t going to beat the Russian who was 51 seconds clear of Howson; and it was tight between the two Aussies.

If you look at the gap from second to third it was seven seconds, third to fourth was two, fourth to fifth nine and it’s like that right down the finish sheet – except for the gap between first and second, which was 44 seconds.

And Dennis is a quality boy, he’s Australian U23 road race and TT champion and rode with Rabo Continental last year – but didn’t enjoy the experience.

Diller was impressive at Gent and Zurich in particular – but he’s good on the road, too.

He took a stage in the Tour de l’Avenir and held the jersey four three days.

Despite that, the big teams haven’t yet come knocking, it demonstrates the level you need to be at to have the pro teams chase you.

And two good things about the camper; there’ll be no bars open until ‘yon time’ below my window – and the bucket motor won’t arrive in the small hours.

At least I hope not.

As we say here in Limburg, ‘tot straks.’

Results - World Road Championships 2012, U23 Time Trial World Championship