Team News – Elinor Barker seconds off medal

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Wiggle Honda’s Elinor Barker finished just seconds off the podium in the British Time Trial Championships at Newport, South Wales

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Team News – Elinor Barker seconds off medal

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Wiggle Honda’s Elinor Barker finished just seconds off the podium in the British Time Trial Championships at Newport, South Wales. Recording a time of 31 minutes and 22 seconds for the hilly, 20.4km (12.2 mile) course, the 19-year-old from nearby Cardiff was just one minute and four seconds slower than former World Champion Emma Pooley (Lotto-Belisol), and just an agonising 13 seconds behind Dame Sarah Storey (Pearl Izumi Sports Tours International) in the bronze medal position.

The silver medal was taken by Storey’s teammate Katie Archibald.

“I’m pretty happy with that,” said the former Junior World Time Trial Champion Barker, “although I would have liked to have got on the podium. I’d say that time trialling is one of my favourite events, so it would have been nice to have got on the podium, but I did better than last year; I came seventh last year, and fourth this year, so hopefully I’ll go a little bit better again next year.”

“It was really nice,” Barker said of what was almost a hometown course. “My parents’ house is about a forty-minute ride away, which is perfect really, so I’ve ridden it quite a few times.”

Just five seconds behind Barker was double Olympic champion Laura Trott in a time of 31 minutes, 27 seconds, while defending champion – and fellow Olympic champion – Joanna Rowsell was fifth, another 14 seconds down in 31 minutes, 41 seconds. Olympic champion Dani King was inside the top ten, in eighth place with a time of 32 minutes, 28 seconds.

“It was a tough course,” said outgoing champion Rowsell. “It’s no secret that, if I was able to design a time trial course, I wouldn’t have designed it with that hill in it! I’m a big girl, I’m not known for my climbing abilities, but I do prefer the short, steep hills, so I wasn’t completely writing myself off. But it was always clear that Emma was the favourite with that sort of hill in it, so I expected her to win”.

“Obviously, I’m disappointed not to get a medal, but I’m preparing for the Commonwealth Games,” she added. “I’ve been training on the track for the last six weeks anyway, so this was never the primary target of the season like it was last year”.

“I’m disappointed but, at the same time, the person that won was the favourite, and I never counted myself as the favourite,” Rowsell concluded.

Amy Roberts was the first rider to start and, despite having no riders to chase or times to aim at, posted a time of 33 minutes, 19 seconds, which was to hold up until almost half the field had finished.

“I don’t really like going off first, to be honest,” said Roberts. “You don’t really have any benchmark. I guess it doesn’t make any difference, but it’s just nice to know. At least I’ve got it done, I don’t really mind I guess”.

“It was so, so hard,” she laughed. I feel sorry for the people that were standing on that last hill, I was going so slowly and making so much noise!

“I didn’t really know what time to aim for, I was just going to go out and go as hard as I could and see what happened.”

In the end, Roberts’ time was good enough to put the 19-year-old Welsh rider in 12th place.

Result
1. Emma Pooley (Lotto Belisol) 30’18”
2. Katie Archibald (Pearl Izumi Sports Tours International) 30’57”
3. Sarah Storey (Pearl Izumi Sports Tours International) 31’09”
4. Elinor Barker (Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling) 31’22”
5. Laura Trott (Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling) 31’27”
6. Joanna Rowsell (Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling) 31’41”

8. Dani King (Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling) 32’28”
12. Amy Roberts (Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling) 33’19”

 

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