Cycling: Kiwi crashes in cycling world champs

Linda Villumsen. Photo / Graham Watson

New Zealander Linda Villumsen suffered minor injuries after being caught in a crash near the finish of the elite women's road race at the UCI Road Cycling World Championships in Copenhagen yesterday.

Villumsen, who won silver in last week's time trial, came down when a rider fell in front of her in a frantic final lap of the 140km race.

Villumsen joined an Italian rider to chase down a late break from Canada's Olympic speed skater Clara Hughes on the penultimate lap. It sparked activity in the peloton in an otherwise lacklustre race to prevent the classy Kiwi pursuiter joining the powerful Canadian.

The New Zealander was reeled in shortly before Hughes was swept up by the big bunch, with Villumsen still poised for a solid finish. But she was left with nowhere to go when a rider fell in front of her.

Villumsen was slightly hurt in the crash but managed to fix her bike enough to finish more than two minutes behind the winner, Giorgia Bronzini. The Italian successfully defended her world title in a fierce sprint from five-time runner up Marianne Vos of the Netherlands and German Ina-Yoko Teutenberg.

"It was disappointing for Linda, who had ridden well all day," said BikeNZ Director Sportif Andy Reid.

"Linda was still in reasonable position for a solid finish until the crash. She has a sore arm which needs some further medical attention and has a few bruises."

Earlier the New Zealanders were swamped by the teams of the big sprinters in the junior men's race over 128km.

Hayden McCormick of Te Awamutu and Auckland's Dion Smith had been prominent in the chase of two riders in the break amid high speeds and a flurry of attacks. With the power of numbers, the strong French squad dominated with an eventual five-strong break clearing away to decide the final sprint won by Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier.

Smith was the best of the BikeNZ riders in the peloton at 41st place with some riders affected by a crash near the end of a race when a German misjudged a corner and brought down more than 15 riders in the process.

Meanwhile New Zealand's Julian Dean believes breakaways will be difficult in today's elite men's race over 266km.

"Jack [Bauer], Greg [Henderson] and myself rode the course this morning and we were riding at 45km/h ourselves just on a training lap. The speeds will be very high and there are not many chances to get away," Dean said.

"Getting into a position near the finish will be the key."