Britain’s Tom Pidcock claims junior time trial title at 2017 World Championships

Britain’s Tom Pidcock displayed is prodigious racing talent once again on Tuesday in Bergen, Norway, winning the junior world time trial title by almost 12 seconds.

The Yorkshireman adds the time trial rainbow bands to his cyclocross victory in January, and has a strong chance of adding a third in the junior road race on Sunday.

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Pidcock won the 21.1km race against the clock by 11.92 seconds over Antonio Puppio of Italy, with none of the other 17 riders starting after Pidcock coming close to his time.

Filip Maciejuk (Poland) finished 13 seconds down to claim third, beating Juri Hollmann (Germany) and Igor Chzhan (Kazakhstan) into fourth and fifth respectively.

Andreas Leknessund (Norway), the last rider off the start ramp, looked like he was on his way to a famous home victory when he went over a second quicker than Picock through the first intermediate time check, with the Brit setting the fastest time through all three checkpoints along the course.

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But he clearly began to suffer in the latter part of the course, losing chunks of time over the final two checkpoints an rolling in at 32 seconds in deficit to Pidcock in eighth place.

Elsewhere, Britain placed another rider in the top-20 with Fred Wright taking 19th spot at 57 seconds down on the winner. Picock’s gold is the first GB medal of the 2017 World Championships, with the elite women’s time trial to come on Tuesday afternoon and the elite men’s on Wednesday.

Results

UCI Road World Championships 2017: Junior men’s individual time trial (21.1km)

1. Tom Pidcock (GBr), in 28-02.15
2. Antonio Puppio (Ita), at 11.92s
3. Filip Maciejuk (Pol), at 13.29s
4. Juri Hollmann (Ger), at 21.53s
5. Igor Chzhan (Kaz), at 23.66s
6. Julius Johansen (Den), at 27.61s
7. Daan Hoole (Ned), at 29.87s
8. Andreas Leknessund (Norway), 32.30s
9. Nik Cemazar (Slo), 35.46s
10. Sebastian Berwick (Aus), 35.93s