Franziska Koch missed a gold medal in the individual time trial at the track cycling world championships, but she gave the German team a surprisingly strong start. The German champion won bronze on the 39.2 kilometer course from Montreal, with four seconds and fifty-four hundredths of a second missing from the victorious title holders Marlen Reusser. Silver went to the young Brit Zoe Backstedt, who was 40.11 seconds slower than the Swiss woman.
Antonia Niedermaier, who was also considered a medal contender beforehand, did not have a good day and finished in seventh place with a deficit of 1 minute and 49 seconds. In the history of the World Championships, there had previously been four golds for German female cyclists: Hanka Kupfernagel (2007), Judith Arndt (2011, 2012), and Lisa Brennauer (2014).
"It's super cool. She really deserved it, she worked hard for it," Niedermaier said on ZDF about Koch's success. She was satisfied with her result: "I knew it wouldn't be a good time trial for me. It was quite flat. That wasn't my favorite course."
Unusually long time trial
The women were on the same course in Montreal, which the men also have to tackle in the evening. The length was also unusual: With almost 40 kilometers, it was the longest time trial of Koch's professional career.
But the 26-year-old was not impressed by this and appeared in the medal standings at all intermediate times. While Backstedt was always ahead of Koch, Reusser shared the race the best. At the first intermediate time, she was still seven seconds behind Koch on her 35th birthday, and at the third and last intermediate time, she was over 20 seconds ahead of the finish line.
Nevertheless, Koch must be very satisfied with her performance. She was repeatedly shown smiling on TV as she was still in the lead before Backstedt and Reusser crossed the finish line.