The final day of individual time trial events was the centerpiece of the third day of the 2022 UCI Road World Championships in Wollongong. The morning had the Junior Women’s competing, with Chloe Patrick (Carson, Calif.; Serious Cycling) and Katherine Sarkisov (North Potomac, Md.; LUX Cycling Development Team) representing Team USA. Alex Gustin (San Diego; LUX Cycling Development Team) and Artem Shmidt (Cumming, Ga.; Hot Tubes Development Cycling) donned the red, white, and blue in the afternoon for the Junior Men’s race.
It was a sunny morning when Patrick took to the 14.1-kilometer course. As she passed through the halfway time split, Patrick was sixth on the road, 45 seconds down from the race leader at the time, Hannah Kunz (GER). As she went through the second half of the course, Patrick closed her gap to the leaders, finishing in a virtual fifth, stopping the clock at 21:38.92.
Reigning Junior Women’s Time Trial champion Sarkisov started the world championship 23rd out of 37 riders. As she rolled through the intermediate time split, Sarkisov was 51.11 seconds back from the race leader on the road, Anna van der Meiden (NED). She finished her effort at 21:46.03. The final rider to take the course, Zoe Backstedt (GBR), lit up the course with her time of 18:26.78. Patrick and Sarkisov placed 26th and 27th, respectively.
1. Zoe Backstedt (GBR) – 18:26.78
2. Justyna Czapla (BEL) – +1:35.58
3. Febe Jooris (BEL) – +1:48.98
26. Chloe Patrick (USA) – +3:12.13
27. Katherine Sarkisov (USA) – +3:19.25
Gustin came flying out of the start house to tackle two laps of the course. He blazed through the early checkpoints, sitting fourth on the road at the halfway point. As Gustin made a righthand turn with 11.9-kilometers left, he bobbled his turn and ended up crashing on course. Team mechanics were out quickly to get him back on track, but he lost valuable time. Once rolling, Gustin took some risks, tight lines through corners and pushing himself hard to recoup the lost time. While not able to recover every second of lost time, he did come back strong, finishing at 37:50.06, placing him fourth at the time.
The first rider in the last wave of Junior Men, Shmidt was going after Australian Hamish McKenzie’s time he posted in the first wave of the day. Going through the first intermediate time check, Shmidt was fourth on the road, 13.93 seconds back from McKenzie’s time. At each subsequent time check, he would maintain his top placing. On the back half of the last lap, Shmidt floored it and crossed the line in second at the time, with a time of 36:36.36. At the end of the day, Joshua Tarling of Great Britain took the top spot with his time of 34:59.26. Schmidt placed sixth and Gustin 24th.
1. Joshua Tarling (GBR) – 34:59.26
2. Hamish McKenzie (AUS) – +19.19
3. Emil Herzog (GER) – +33.45
6. Artem Shmidt (USA) – +1:37.10
24. Alexander Gustin (USA) – +2:51.20
Unfortunately, after Magnus Sheffield's crash in the Elite Time Trial, USA Cycling will not compete in the Team Relay. Racing will resume on Friday in Wollongong for Team USA with the Junior Men’s and U23 Men’s Road Race. The Junior Men’s squad of Gustin, Shmidt, and Viggo Moore (Feldberg, Ger., LUX Cycling Development Team) will kick it off at 6:15 p.m. EDT. Then, starting at 11:00 p.m. EDT Finn Gullickson (Colorado Springs, Colo.; CR4C Roanne), Luke Lamperti (Sebastopol, Calif.; Trinity Racing), Matthew Riccitello (Tucson, Ariz.; Israel Premier-Tech), Colby Simmons (Durango, Colo.; Jumbo-Visma Development Team), and Patrick Welch (Northfield, Minn.; Kelly Benefits Strategies) will take on the U23 Men’s 169.3-kilometer road race. Watch it live here.
