Linda Villumsen is a real medal chance for next year's London Olympics. Photo / Graham Watson
Linda Villumsen will be seeking a medal of a more golden hue when she lines up in London next year but this morning she was delighted to pick up her third world championships' cycling medal in the time trial.
She won bronze in the time trial in both 2009 and 2010 but this morning's silver came in the country of her birth around the streets of Copenhagen. The Danish-born cyclist became a New Zealand citizen at the end of 2009 and is now hoping to win a medal for her adopted country at the London Olympics.
"It will be the same three of us in the medals next year but it will be my turn for the gold,'' Villumsen predicted. "It was special for me today for sure. I had my family and friends here supporting me, too. I told my brother to go in the hardest part of the course and yell for me. It was good support for me from everybody.''
The same three elite women shared the medals in the time trial today as at Melbourne last year but on a vastly different course with Geelong's hills compared with flat, windy and wet conditions at Copenhagen.
It was the highlight of an historic day for New Zealand at the UCI road world championships in Copenhagen after James Oram also claimed silver in the junior men's time trial. It was the first time BikeNZ have won two medals at the same world championships and is further confirmation New Zealand's cycling programme is world-class.
World track pursuit silver medallist Jesse Sergent and 2009 national road champion Jack Bauer ride in the elite men's time trial tonight (NZT) but it is a very strong field headed by four-time world and Olympic champion Fabian Cancellara and other top time triallists Tony Martin (Germany), David Millar and Olympic pursuit champion Bradley Wiggins (both Great Britain), American star prospect Taylor Phinney and current world pursuit champion Jack Bobridge (Australia).
The conditions could play a significant role and Villumsen found the conditions more trying than she anticipated, although she didn't change her approach.
"The first lap in the wet was a little bit tricky because you never know how fast you can take the corners but the second lap was okay because you knew and none of them were dangerous,'' she said.
"It was harder than I thought it would be. That was to my advantage. It was a strong head wind which was pretty bad, it seemed like a climb.
"I didn't change my tactics, though. I always ride the same - not really with tactics but to ride as fast as I can and see how long I can last for.
"After the first lap people were cheering a lot more and so you knew they had been told of my time but apart from that it was not easy to understand how the others were doing behind me.''
Villumsen, who rides for the Dutch AA Drink professional team, set the best time of the day until the penultimate ride from 2004 world champion Judith Arndt from Germany, who blitzed the second lap after being only the eighth fastest at the first time split half way around the first lap.
Villumsen has four days break before she competes in the road race as the sole New Zealand representative.
Earlier, Oram surprised himself with his medal-winning performance in the junior men's race over the same 27.8km course.
The 18-year-old former Westlake Boys rider was off as the 10th rider in a 55-strong field, producing a stunning effort to clock 35:07.68 to claim the lead. He had to wait nervously for two hours before his time was beaten.
"It was pretty nerve wracking that was for sure,'' Oram said. "I really needed to go to the toilet but they held me there as the leader.
"I came in here thinking that a top-10 performance would be great. And if I was lucky then top-five would be an absolute dream. So to get a silver medal is pretty crazy. It's not really sunk in yet.''
It took a huge effort from hometown Dane Mads Wurtz Schmidt to edge out Oram by just four seconds to win gold.
Results:
Elite women time trial, 27.8km: Judith Arndt (GER) 37:07.38, 1; Linda Villumsen (NZL) 37:29.11, 2; Emma Pooley (GBR) 37:31.51, 3; Tara Whitten (CAN) 37:33.54, 4; Clara Hughes (CAN) 37:44.17, 5.