After the excitement of the Junior Men’s ITT, I was happy for the 25 minute walk back to the center of town to let the adrenaline in my system settle down. Fien had arrived from Belgium to be my official spectating partner for the rest of the week, starting with the women’s ITT in the afternoon.
I was pretty excited that Canada had 2 women riding in this event. Denise Ramsden was the first of the 2 and was one of the first riders to go off. It usually takes a crowd several riders to get in the spirit of things and really start to cheer but with Denise starting 3rd, we didn’t have the luxury of time. I had already exchanged pleasantries and exhausted my limited Italian with several other spectators who had seen me pinning up my Canadian flag, so right before Denise was due to pass by, I pointed to the road, saying, La prossima Canadese! On diamo! On diamo!” and gestured for them to cheer and shout. I have no idea if that’s the correct Italian spelling, but I assure you that’s exactly what I said. When we first caught sight of her, I figured people would be willing to follow my lead so long as I got things going, so as I bellowed for Denise, the crowd quickly got energized and clapped, cheered, hooted, and howled for her! I was thrilled and Denise finished in a respectable 24th place. After she’d gone by, I thanked the spectators and got plenty of “preggo!” responses.
Now that we were well into the race and I’d been cheering for the Italian riders, it took far less coaxing to get the crowd geared up for the Canadian road and ITT champion, Joelle Numainville, who finished in 19th place.
American Carmen Small finished in third place for the bronze.
Evelyn Stevens is one of the few riders in the female peloton I know anything about. The prize money at women’s races is a fraction of the men’s and many women work part time jobs in order to fund their training whereas their make counterparts earn enough from their contracts to train full time. With this in mind, Stevens quit her high paying Wall Street job to take up cycling full time (Bicycling Magazine and the Wall Street Journal have both published great stories on her). Stevens placed 4th overall, just 0.04 seconds behind her teammate, Small.
Linda Villumsen, who rides for a Wiggle Honda, won silver.
Ellen Van Dijk was the favorite going in to the race and she delivered, beating the kiwi by 24.1 seconds.
Results
1st: Ellen Van Dijk, Netherlands
2nd: Linda Villumsen, New Zealand
3rd: Carmen Small, USA