Cycling news - Phenomenal Annemiek van Vleuten takes title as Dutch dominate World Time Trial

Updated 25/09/2018 at 15:22 GMT

Annemiek van Vleuten produced an unstoppable ride to take the World Time Trial title in Austria with a time of 34:25.36.

Van Vleuten wereldkampioen Innsbruck

Image credit: Eurosport

Van Vleuten’s astonishing performance knocked her compatriot Anna van der Breggen off top spot, with the 35-year-old beating her rival by 29 seconds.

Fellow Netherlands rider Ellen van Dijk finished third to complete an orange-wash of the podium, with the bronze medallist finishing a full one minute and 25 seconds down on the winner.

Annemiek van Vleuten roars to world title

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The win continues a phenomenal year for Van Vleuten, who also beat Van der Breggen in a nail-biting finish of La Course back in July.

But the veteran will delay any celebrations until after Saturday's Road Race as she targets a World's double.

Speaking after her victory, Van Vleuten said:

"For sure I had some pressure, but I had pressure last year so it's not so different. If you're here starting you just want to win and win the jersey, and I know how nice it is to ride and train in the beautiful jersey.

The thing with this Time Trial was that there was uphill but in the descent you didn't have recovery. So your legs would be screaming to stop pedalling in the descent, but you had to keep on going otherwise you'd lose time. So I was riding 80km/h an hour I think in the descents, but still pushing the pedals. It made it almost like a flat Time Trial with hills.

"I knew I took some time in the first part, but I also felt that I went out pretty fast. In the national championships I went out too slow, so I felt that I had to start fast.

"The next goal is Saturday. First I'm going to enjoy this one, but for not too long. Saturday is a beautiful course and I'm really looking forward to racing that with my team."