A nail-bitingly tight three-way battle in the Road World Championships mixed relay team time trial on Wednesday saw Australia claim the victory by less than a second over Germany, with Italy clinching bronze, just eight seconds further behind.
When the three top nations' riders entered the final quarter of an extremely long, remorselessly rugged course running across the hills around Zurich, they were still only separated by a scant five seconds in Australia's favour.
A last-ditch effort by Grace Brown, already a winner of the World's individual time trial last Saturday and teammate Brodie Chapman then just managed to keep Australia atop of the results table by the finish by the tiniest of margins.
Bronze medallists in 2023, Germany had the consolation of going one better in 2024 with silver, while Italy fell off the pace slightly in the final kilometre to finish eight seconds down and complete the podium - but still well ahead of fourth-placed France, 23 seconds back, in one of the most dramatic TTs in recent Worlds history.
"I'm feeling a bit greedy, I need a few more rainbow jerseys in my closet," Brown joked afterwards as she added a second World Championships title to the one she took last weekend, "but this one's really got a nice vibe, to do it with the whole Aussie crew. It's really exciting."
Brown's teammate Michael Matthews added, "It was a hard one. I think Jay [Vine] put me to the sword on that first climb, I think we averaged about 650 Watts from bottom to top, so it was a hard day and there was not much recovery.
"So we had to stick together as much as possible and keep our speed as high as possible. We came through with the fastest time [at the first checkpoint] and then we knew we had a really strong women's team to finish it off."
How it unfolded
The Team Time Trial Mixed Relay is a relatively new event, offering a chance for men and women to compete together, even if they ride in different moments, first as a trio of men and then as a trio of women. The times of the two teams are combined to decide the final results.
Mongolia were the first of the 18 teams to get the ball rolling on the very selective, unforgiving 53.7-kilometre course, by far the longest in the Mixed Relay's five-year history, and featuring nearly 1,000 metres of vertical climbing. Nearly all of the first wave of 10 squads immediately began losing riders as soon as the men tackled the short, punchy first ascent, the Witikonerstrasse, with Mohamed Islam Jorat and Qais Haidari (Afghanistan) both dropping behind teammate Ahmad Mirzaye. Mirzaye then had his own share of problems when he crashed through a fence, fortunately without injuries.
Meanwhile, China's Lyu Xianging was visibly undecided about having to wait for compatriot Chengshuo Miao - which he eventually did - and two Algerian riders had some sort of an on-bike disagreement about their lack of collaboration. Regardless of the course, on a difficult course, any such divisions, be they verbal or physical, inevitably came at a high price time-wise - and just as well it wasn't raining.
After the women's half of the teams took over, China's early best time of 1:23:39 was rapidly demolished by Ukraine, with a stunning result of 1:19:52. Only Estonia, 1:29 back, came anywhere close to their central European rivals, meaning Ukraine's time was destined to stand as the initial target to beat for the second half of the competition.
When the second, final, wave of eight teams began rolling down the ramps, despite losing Jonas Walton, Canada quickly upped the game at the first checkpoint (km11) with a provisional best time of 17:05 - exactly a minute faster than Estonia. A super-strong USA trio including recent Vuelta a España TT winner Brandon McNulty then pushed it even higher to 16:39, but the biggest hitters proved to be Germany, who went a full nine seconds faster, with Italy and Australia slotting in just behind.
Double defending champion Switzerland suffered a major setback when Johan Jacobs was dropped less than five minutes into racing, almost certainly ruling them out of the medal battle. The German men, on the other hand, continued to go from strength to strength, blasting home in their half of the course in a top mark of 34:06 - only for a massive turn by Michael Matthews along the finishing straight in downtown Zurich to see Australia clock an even more impressive time of 33:44.
Then there was yet more excitement as Italy pushed their way between Germany and leaders Australia, finishing just seven seconds down as their women's trio of Elisa Longo Borghini, Soraya Paladin, and Gaia Realini took over. Gold then, was by no means out of reach for any of the first three teams atop of the results board at the half-way point, with France, just a second slower than Germany at the half-way point, still very much a medal contender as well.
Fifth at the mid-way point, the USA women briefly claimed top time at checkpoint 3 (km 33) with a fine 54:28. But their time was kicked out of the park by Germany with 53:17, a massive 1:11 ahead, and despite losing Ruby Roseman-Gannon early on a climb, Australia steadied their own ship, too, to go five seconds faster. Italy were only two seconds down on Australia, though, ensuring it would be a three-horse race for gold all the way to the line. France's women, however, faded notably, leaving the podium finishers - if not the order - all but decided.
At the finish line, Germany blasted home at 1:12:53, more than two minutes ahead of the previous best Denmark. But it remained uncertain if that would be good enough to stand on top of the podium. Australia's Brown and Chapman were giving it their all, though, on the flat final run-in that had already proved so critical to the men's team effort, they just inched the German squad out of the top spot. It seemed incredible that there should be less than a second's difference after such a tough 53-kilometre course between the top two teams, but the results board told a different story. But the cliffhanger finale had yet to reach a conclusion, as with a kilometre to go, TV images showed the Italians were still only a second behind the Australians.
With their teammates and rivals all silently glued to the TV screens at the finish, as Italian duo Elisa Borghini and Gaia Realini closed in on the line, the tension could hardly have been any higher. In the last 200 metres, though, the clock shifted in favour of the Australians and Germans, meaning the Italian team had to settle for bronze - and a hugely entertaining time trial medals battle with the most uncertain of outcomes had finally been resolved.
Results
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