Cycling news: Kasper Asgreen, Marlen Reusser and Josef Cerny defend national time trial titles
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Published 17/06/2021 at 20:09 GMT
Three riders defended their national time trial jerseys on Thursday. Kasper Asgreen won Denmark's men's Individual Time Trial for the third consecutive time, Marlen Reusser defended her Switzerland ITT crown, and Josef Cerny won the Czech Republic's race against the clock.
Kasper-Asgreen ©Bas Czerwinski / Getty Images
Image credit: Getty Images
Kasper Asgreen, Marlen Reusser and Josef Cerny all secured national time trial championship wins on Thursday, with the trio successfully defending their 2020 titles.
Danish speedster Asgreen was in dominant form on the 47.8km course, finishing over 20 seconds clear of his closes rival to make it a hat-trick of Danish time trial crowns for the Deceuninck – Quick-Step man.
“I was expecting the course to be a lot faster, but it ended up being very tough because of the wind, which forced me to fight hard out there,” Asgreen said.
“I kept fighting and believing and in the end it worked out well, which makes me happy. I have enjoyed having this jersey in the last two years and I’m happy I will be able to show it over the next 12 months in some big races.”
Ale BTC Ljubljana rider Reusser also kept up her fine form against the clock as she continued to build towards the Tokyo Olympics in July.
Ruesser, whose win was her fourth Swiss TT triumph, finished a full minute and 35 seconds clear of the next fastest rider Melanie Maurer.
"I’m very happy to have been able to defend the title of national champion,” Reusser said.
I really wanted it, I had prepared myself and I was confident that I could do a good performance. I’m satisfied, but I think there is still a lot of work to do on the way to Tokyo."
And Czech rider Cerny became the second Deceuninck – Quick-Step rider to retain his national colours on Thursday, living up to his billing as pre-race favourite by winning his third Czech Republic ITT title by over a minute.
“I am grateful to everybody here, because they supported me since joining the Wolfpack and made sure I had only the best conditions,” Cerny said.
“I came out of the Dauphiné two weeks ago really well prepared and confident in my chances of successfully defending the title. And now that I’ve done so, I am very happy.
“I like this jersey a lot and it’s a real honour to wear it for one more year.”
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