September 25, 2018 (Innsbruck, Austria) – Team Canada’s Leah Kirchmann of Winnipeg delivered the best time trial of her life racing to a fab fourth place, finishing just off the podium in the Elite Women’s 27.7km ITT at the 2018 Road World Championships in Innsbruck, Austria. Teammate, Karol-Ann Canuel of Gatineau, Quebec, was 8th putting two Canucks in the top 10 as Annemiek Van Vleuten (Netherlands) defended her title leading a Dutch podium sweep.

Kirchmann was just 1.62 seconds off the podium finishing the 27.7 kilometre race with a time of 35 minutes and 52.17 seconds, one minute and 26.81 seconds behind van Vleuten. Canuel finished two minutes and 15.86 seconds behind van Vleuten.

“I think it was the best time trial of my life,” said Kirchmann, “so I’m super happy with that. It’s always hard to come fourth and be so close to a podium position. At the same time, it’s motivating; I showed today that I have the ability to be there and be competitive, so I’ll use that when I’m targeting future time trials. This result opens up options for me, and looking forward to the Games in 2020, they are definitely a goal, so maybe my focus will turn a little more to the time trial.”

“I’m so happy,” said Canuel, “I knew coming into this race that I could be top-10, so I’m really pleased with the result. This course was definitely a challenge for me, because technically I still have some improvement to do, plus I only saw the course yesterday so I only had a short time to prepare. The focus in the past few weeks has been on the TTT [Team Time Trial, where Canuel’s team Boels-Dolmans was second]. I think under the circumstances, this was the best I could do today.”

In the Junior men’s time trial, Canada’s Conor Martin of Kelowna, BC, was 25th, finishing three minutes and 35.94 seconds behind winner Remco Evenpoel of Belgium. Canadian champion Ben Katerberg of Courtenay, BC, did not finish after crashing.

Results

Elite Women
1. Annemiek Van Vleuten (Netherlands) 0:34:25
2. Anna Van Der Breggen (Netherlands) 0:29
3. Ellen Van Dijk (Netherlands) 1:25
4. Leah Kirchmann (Canada) 1:27
5. Leah Thomas (United States Of America) 1:32
6. Lucinda Brand (Netherlands) 1:43
7. Amber Leone Neben (United States Of America) 1:48
8. Karol-Ann Canuel (Canada) 2:16
9. Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy) 2:17
10. Tayler Wiles (United States Of America) 2:31
11. Georgia Williams (New Zealand) 2:33
12. Pernille Mathiesen (Denmark) 2:35
13. Juliette Labous (France) 2:40
14. Lisa Brennauer (Germany) 2:49
15. Trixi Worrack (Germany) 3:02
16. Emilia Fahlin (Sweden) 3:09
17. Marlen Reusser (Switzerland) 3:11
18. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Denmark) 3:17
19. Audrey Cordon Ragot (France) 3:17
20. Alena Amialiusik (Belarus) 3:20
21. Elena Pirrone (Italy) 3:32
22. Alice Barnes (Great Britain) 3:42
23. Hayley Simmonds (Great Britain) 3:47
24. Vita Heine (Norway) 3:48
25. Martina Ritter (Austria) 3:51
26. Lotta Pauliina Lepisto (Finland) 3:56
27. Omer Shapira (Israel) 3:59
28. Ann-Sophie Duyck (Belgium) 4:00
29. Eri Yonamine (Japan) 4:00
30. Margarita Victo Garcia Canellas (Spain) 4:09
31. Olga Shekel (Ukraine) 4:09
32. Anastasiia Iakovenko (Russian Federation) 4:10
33. Kelly Murphy (Ireland) 4:19
34. Fernanda Yapura (Argentina) 4:21
35. Antri Christoforou (Cyprus) 4:31
36. Valeriya Kononenko (Ukraine) 4:34
37. Barbara Mayer (Austria) 4:41
38. Tereza Korvasova (Czech Republic) 5:01
39. Mia Radotic (Croatia) 5:04
40. Rotem Gafinovitz (Israel) 5:09
41. Eileen Burns (Ireland) 5:11
42. Maria Novolodskaya (Russian Federation) 5:26
43. Natalya Saifutdinova (Kazakhstan) 5:47
44. Varvara Fasoi (Greece) 6:09
45. Faina Potapova (Kazakhstan) 6:30
46. Eyeru Tesfoam Gebru (Ethiopia) 6:34
47. Agua Marina Espinola (Paraguay) 6:46
48. Tatiana Jasekova (Slovakia) 6:49
49. Teniel Campbell (Trinidad & Tabago) 7:19
50. Mosana Debesay (Eritrea) 7:32
51. Yixian Pu (People’s Republic of China) 7:37
DNF Mikayla Harvey (New Zealand)

Junior Men
1. Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) 0:33:15
2. Lucas Plapp (Australia) 1:23
3. Andrea Piccolo (Italy) 1:37
4. Michel Hessman (Germany) 1:47
5. Soren Waerenskjold (Norway) 1:50
6. Ilan Van Wilder (Belgium) 2:01
7. Manuel Michielsen (Netherlands) 2:10
8. Joseph Laverick (Great Britain) 2:21
9. Jacob Hindsgaul Madsen (Denmark) 2:26
10. Michael Garrison (USA) 2:32
11. Lev Gonov (Russia) 2:33
12. Alexandre Balmer (Switzerland) 2:38
13. Jakob Gessner (Germany) 2:45
14. Ben Healy (Ireland) 2:49
15. Biniam Girmay Hailu (Eritrea) 2:53
16. Kevin Vauquelin (France) 3:03
17. Daniil Pronskiy (Kazakhstan) 3:11
18. Enzo Leijnse (Netherlands) 3:13
19. Riley Sheehan (United States Of America) 3:20
20. Gleb Brussenskiy (Kazakhstan) 3:23
21. William Blume Levy (Denmark)
22. Carlos Rodriguez Cano (Spain) 3:25
23. Yevgeniy Fedorov (Kazakhstan) 3:26
24. Valentin Gotzinger (Austria) 3:30
25. Conor Martin (Canada) 3:35
26. Gleb Karpenko (Estonia) 3:37
27. Artjom Mirzojev (Estonia) 3:38
28. Ruslan Koshovyi (Ukraine) 3:41
29. Guilherme Mota (Portugal)
30. Maximilian Kabas (Austria)
31. Arthur Kluckers (Luxembourg) 3:42
32. Samuele Manfredi (Italy) 3:46
33. Maksim Bilyi (Ukraine) 3:54
34. Petr Kelemen (Czech Republic) 3:55
35. Dzianis Mazur (Belarus) 3:57
36. Antoine Devanne (France) 3:59
37. Daniil Turuk (Belarus) 4:09
38. Ben Tulett (Great Britain) 4:11
39. Fredrik Gjesteland Finnesand (Norway) 4:17
40. Bostjan Murn (Slovenia) 4:20
41. Dawid Kuderczak (Poland) 4:23
42. Dominik Bieler (Switzerland) 4:24
43. Damian Papierski (Poland)
44. Branko Huys (Belgium) 4:29
45. Gilles Kirsch (Luxembourg) 4:33
46. Aaron Doherty (Ireland) 4:38
47. Iakov Gusev (Russian Federation) 4:52
48. Afonso Silva (Portugal) 4:54
49. Jean Eric Habimana (Rwanda) 5:09
50. Erikas Sidlauskas (Lithuania) 5:11
51. Ivan Cobo Cayon (Spain)
52. Alekss Krasts (Latvia) 5:12
53. Yoel Asmerom Tesfasilasie (Eritrea) 5:27
54. Julian Espinoza (Costa Rica) 5:30
55. Valentin Vasiloiu (Romania) 5:42
56. Adam Foltan (Slovakia) 5:46
57. Aristidas Kelmelis (Lithuania) 6:04
58. Taisei Hino (Japan) 6:05
59. Renus Uhiriwe (Rwanda) 6:08
60. Carlo Jurisevic (Croatia) 6:21
61. Hiroyuki Umakoshi (Japan) 6:29
62. Zani Sylhasi (Kosovo) 6:56
63. Lukas Kubis (Slovakia) 6:59
64. Qadir Mustafayev (Azerbaijan) 7:04
65. Luis Esteban Murillo (Costa Rica) 7:09
66. Jeffrey Diaz Rivera (Puerto Rico) 7:52
67. Marcel Rodrigo Teneb Schiesewitz (Chile) 8:03
68. Mohamed Rayes (Syrian Arab Republic) 9:08
69. Blerton Nuha (Kosovo) 9:21
70. Briton John (Guyana) 9:48
DNF Ben Katerberg (Canada)