2020 World Championships Women RR Results & Recap
2020 World Championships Women RR is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Van der Breggen captures a double rainbow in Imola
Anna van der Breggen (NED) took her second world title in three days after attacking on the steep Mazzolano climb 41 kilometres from the finish at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola. Fresh from a win in the time trial, the Dutch champion brought her country a fourth consecutive world title.
Her teammate and defending champion, Annemiek van Vleuten sprinted to second place on a broken wrist from a crash the Giro Rosa a week prior, beating Elisa Longo Borghini by just inches across the line.
The 143km was carried out under windy conditions, and was arguably one of the most challenging courses the world championships has seen in the past few years. Held over a 28km circuit, the first couple laps were calm, and the rolling terrain thinned out weaker riders naturally before the first attacks came. Alison Jackson (Canada) instigated a move and was followed by Grace Brown (Australia). That's when things began to heat up as a group of strong names formed the break including Juliette Labous (France), Lisa Brennauer (Germany), Katia Ragusa (Italy), Tayler Wiles (USA), Alice Barnes (Great Britain), Hannah Barnes (Great Britain), Amy Pieters (Netherlands), Susanne Andersen (Norway) and Christine Majerus (Luxembourg).
After seeing the gap grow quickly, Mavi Garcia bridged across to represent Spain in the break. The breakaway looked promising until the penultimate lap, when Van der Breggen rocketed ahead and practically brought the break's advantage down on her own.
On the Cima Gallisterna, Van der Breggen turned on the gas and launched her winning move, leaving her competitors behind. Borghini and Van Vleuten made up the first chase group about a minute and 15 seconds behind.
Van der Breggen never looked back and held her advantage all the way too the line, while Borghini had to do the majority of the work to chase. The Italian had enough left to sprint against Van Vleuten at the finish, but couldn't overtake the Dutch rider and had to settle for third. \n
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