September 29, 2010 (Geelong, Australia) – Emma Pooley of Great Britain has won the first Elite rainbow jersey here at the 2010 Road World Cycling Championships in Geelong, Australia. Pooley, who led at every intermediate time check during the Elite women’s 22.8km ITT, was clearly the strongest on the day, winning by 15 seconds over Germany’s Judith Arndt. Linda Melanie Villumsen, who changed her nationality to New Zealand from Denmark earlier this year, finished just 0.63 seconds behind Arndt for the bronze.

Edmonton’s Tara Whitten rode well to finish one place better than last year’s ITT Worlds in Mendrisio, Switzerland, finishing seventh at 1:05 behind Pooley. Fellow Canuck, Anne Samplonius, had a strong race as well to claim 15th.

“Yeah it’s fantastic,” said Pooley, “I can’t quite believe it. Maybe I will wake up in five minutes and it will be this morning again!” Her win is all the more remarkable because she had to ride her spare bike with an altered position as the UCI deemed her normal race set up illegal. Given Pooley’s small stature, the morphological exception rule applies, yet she still has trouble getting into a position that’s within legal standards. “I had to move the saddle back a bit and move the bars up a bit because it wasn’t within the regulations,” she said.

Certainly a gold metal is all that’s left for Arndt to win in the TT – she has five medals in the time trial but no rainbow jersey. She joked at the post race press conference saying, “It’s always nice to win a World Championships medal – but I would be happy if it was gold sometime. I’m always second and I don’t know why!” She added, “When it’s cold like this and you come to a climb it’s nasty.”

Villumson, who has lived in New Zealand for several years, explained her change in citizenship. “I feel NZ is my home and I am very proud to represent Zew Zealand”. Evergreen Jeannie Longo Ciprelli (Fra) at age 51 continues to amaze fans, finishing fifth at only 43 seconds behind Pooley.

Full results here