Armstrong wins 2nd straight time trial gold
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Associated Press
Compare 12:45 PM EST11:05 AM EST09:53 AM EST09:14 AM EST08:56 AM EST and 12:45 PM EST11:05 AM EST09:53 AM EST09:14 AM EST08:56 AM EST
HAMPTON COURT, England & Kristin Armstrong knew she was the favorite to win time trial gold in cycling at the Beijing Olympics. But when she looked at the start list in London, she counted nine riders with a shot.
In the end, there was only one.
The defending champion blistered an 18-mile course south of London on Wednesday to win her second straight gold medal. Her time of 37 minutes, 34.82 seconds was more than 15 seconds better than world champion Judith Arndt of Germany, who took silver.
Olga Zabelinskaya of Russia won the bronze.
"My mantra was, 'You have to live with this ride,'" said Armstrong, who briefly retired after the 2008 Beijing Olympics to start a family. "You're only as good as your last result."
It couldn't have been any better.
The former two-time world champion had already gained a second on the field by the first time check, and the advantage had swelled to five by the time she reached the 12 1/2-mile mark.
Armstrong knew she was headed for another gold when she started to pick off riders in the run-up to the finish, including Dutch champion Marianne Vos, who won gold in the road race.
The famously stoic Armstrong let a smile slip as she crossed the finish line, slowing to a stop and then slumping over her bike. She rested just enough to catch her breath before heading to the victory stand and her second consecutive Olympic gold.
"When she stopped, she was on top. You don't lose what you've got," said Armstrong's teammate Amber Neben, who finished seventh. "You don't lose the fact that you're a great bike racer."
Tour de France champion Bradley Wiggins gave the thousands of fans packing the course reason to cheer when he triumphed in the men's race.
Wiggins captured his fourth Olympic gold medal by beating world champion Tony Martin of Germany by 42 seconds, while British teammate Chris Froome took the bronze.
It was all gold for Armstrong, even if the path from Beijing wasn't entirely smooth.
Armstrong thought she was finished after winning the world championship in 2009, but got the itch to ride again after delivering a son, Lucas, in 2010. She got back on the bike and started to win races, only to break her collarbone during a crash in May.
Armstrong admits that she rushed her recovery, getting back on the bike only a couple weeks later. But she also thinks the time off allowed her to refocus on the London Olympics.
"This is an amazing moment," she said. "A lot of people ask me what the differences were between this and Beijing. I would say this was a much more difficult journey."
The mostly flat course that Armstrong turned into her personal playground began at Hampton Court Palace, the 16th century court once favored by Henry VIII.
The race meandered through the Surrey countryside, twice crossing the River Thames, before finishing back at the palace. Riders in position to medal were ushered onto so-called hot seats & three gilded thrones & to wait out the rest of the riders.
That's where Zabelinskaya spent much of the afternoon.
The bronze medalist in the road race, she was the 10th of 24 riders to leave the start tent, and posted a time more than two minutes better than the next-fastest had crossed the line.
She looked almost sheepish sitting on her throne as riders finished.
"I'm really happy to win this medal in such company," she said later, "but I'm also a bit disappointed, because I know I could have gone a bit faster at the beginning."
Linda Villumsen of New Zealand turned heads when she crossed the first checkpoint only a second slower than Armstrong, and the world silver medalist was still second-fastest at the second check.
She struggled over the final leg and finished fourth, less than two seconds off the podium.
Canadian rider Clara Hughes, a former Olympic speedskater, was third at the opening time check before fading to fifth. Britain's Emma Pooley was fourth early before struggling over the final 12 miles, finishing sixth to cheers from a huge home crowd.
"Everybody there wanted me to win. That's what's exciting," said Pooley, who won silver in Beijing. "The number of medals that are on the table, I really don't give monkeys about. We gave our best. I would not be there if I didn't want to try and win."
Arndt was considered the biggest challenge to Armstrong after her time trial victory at the world championships. The silver medalist at the 2004 Athens Games, she was fifth at the first time check but managed to pick up her pace over the final 12 miles to earn another silver.
"You have to have a good day, and I had a good," Arndt said. "I think I had a good race."
Just not as good as Armstrong.
"I'm really happy about this silver medal," Arndt said, before dropping her voice to almost a whisper. "Of course, my goal was to win gold, but if you asked me yesterday, I would have named Kristin the favorite to win."
AP Sports Writer Samuel Petrequin contributed to this report.
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HuffPost LightboxBradley Wiggins won the world time trial title for the first time
Sir Bradley Wiggins won his first world time trial title after beating defending champion Tony Martin by 26 seconds with a supreme performance.
The 34-year-old Briton was four seconds down on his German rival at the first time split but had edged ahead by the second checkpoint and continued to extend his lead all the way to the finish.Wiggins becomes only the second Briton to claim the world time trial title after Chris Boardman's victory in the inaugural event in 1994, and he now adds a rainbow jersey on the road to the six he had already won the track.He is also now the reigning national, world and Olympic time-trial champion, having beaten Martin to gold at the London Games two years ago.Wiggins said: "I don't know what to say. I knew coming into it I had the legs and when I saw the course I realised that if I was ever going to beat Tony again, it would be on a course like this. Speechless"It has been an up-and-down year and I want to dedicate this to my family. My wife and children back home have always been there for me and had to put up with me. This was my last World Time Trial Championship, so to finish it with a gold medal - I don't know what to say."
Wiggins adds the world title to his Olympic time trial title
Wiggins went into the event as second favourite behind Martin, who was looking for a fourth consecutive world title and had beaten the Briton into second place in both 2011 and 2013.The 47.1km course, which started and finished in Ponferrada, in north-western Spain, contained two late climbs that suited Wiggins over Martin.As expected, the pair were the fastest two riders in the field from start to finish, with Martin edging 4.14 seconds in front at the first checkpoint, after 12.2km.Wiggins fought back over the next 11km to take a slender 2.64-second lead by the second time check, after 23.2km, but then began to dominate and was 9.64 seconds in front by the third and final split, after 35.2km.
"I knew the difference would be made on that final loop. I paced it perfectly and I still had gas in the final."
Sir Bradley Wiggins
'Paced it perfectlyThe road then started rising up and with Wiggins the superior climber, he put another 16 seconds into the wilting Martin to add yet another global honour to his already glittering palmares.Wiggins added: "I have prepared for things like this so many times in the past and when I know the form and the condition is there, I'm quite relaxed and I know what I have to do once I get out on the bike, so it's just a case of waiting all day. "I knew the difference would be made on that final loop. I paced it perfectly and I still had gas in the final. Even on that last descent, I heard I was ten seconds up, but I was pushing all the way and not taking any risks. It was superb." Tom Dumoulin, of the Netherlands, finished 40 seconds down on Wiggins to take the bronze medal, while the other Briton in the race, Alex Dowsett, finished 2min 35sec down in 20th.Result1 Sir Bradley Wiggins (Great Britain), 56:252 Tony Martin (Germany), +263 Tom Dumoulin (Netherlands), +404 Vasil Kiryienka (Belarus), +475 Rohan Dennis (Australia), +576 Adriano Malori (Italy), +1:117 Nelson Oliveira (Portugal), +1:218 Anton Vorobyev (Russia), +1:299 Jan Barta (Czech Republic), +1:4310 Jonathan Castroviejo (Spain), +1:44