October 5/99 11:08 am - van Morsel Wins, Hughes Sixth!

Posted by Editor on 10/5/99
 

van Moorsel Wins, Hughes Sixth!

Clara Hughes is back among the top riders in the world, after a superb ride in the women's 25.8 kilometre individual time trial at the Road Worlds in Trevisio, Italy. Edita Pucinskaite of Lithuania set the early fast time of 32:40, with Hughes next at 33:23. These two remained 1-2 until Australia's Anna Wilson posted 32:36. However, the big guns were still to come: Leontien Zijlaard van Moorsel (Ned) had the fastest split, four seconds up on Zulfia Zabirova (Rus) and nine seconds ahead of German Hanka Kupfernagel. The question was, could these riders maintain their leads? Well, van Moorsel could, finishing 5 seconds in front of Wilson to take the rainbow jersey. Zabirova and Kupfernagel faded slightly in the final kilometres, but still took 4th and 5th, bumping Hughes to 6th. Still, an excellent performance for Hughes, who had been written off due to injury prior to the start of the season.