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Shades of 1990 Van Moorsel wins women's elite time trial
Posted: Thursday October 14, 1999 08:11 PM
TREVISO, Italy (AP) -- Leontien van Moorsel was as dominant Tuesday at the World Cycling Championships as she was in 1990. Powerful legs pumping to the rhythm of her husband-coach's shouts, the Dutch rider used a blazing start to capture her second straight elite women's time trial and fifth gold medal of the decade. Van Moorsel, who stayed away from cycling from 1994-95 with health problems, confirmed her status as one of the sport's greats by covering the relatively flat road course of 25.85 kilometers (16 miles) through and around cloud-covered Treviso in 32 minutes, 31.87 seconds. Her husband, Michael Zijlaard, prodded her right down to the finish beside the northeastern city's 12th-century cathedral. The blue-clad Zijlaard periodically popped through the sun roof of the fire-red team car like a Jack-in-the-Box, screaming numbers, instructions or just plain encouragement. "I can hear just from his voice how it's going," the 29-year-old van Moorsel said. "I knew the split times from him and I knew it was very close, so I pushed hard through the finish." She needed to. The last cyclist to take to the course in the race against the clock, van Moorsel covered the first third of the route in 11:20.20, more than 9 seconds faster than eventual runner-up Anna Wilson of Australia. But Wilson, a Commonwealth Games champion, handled the tight turns in the race's middle portion smoothly, and van Moorsel had to bear down in the closing stretch to add this title to last year's triumph, her 1991 and 1993 road race championships, and a track pursuit crown from 1990. Wilson finished in 32:36.44, with Elita Pucinskaite -- a Lithuania who lives in Italy -- third in 33:03.62. Olympic champion Zoulfia Zabirova of Russia was fourth. Van Moorsel could add yet another world championship to her impressive resume in Saturday's 97.5-kilometer (60.45-mile) road race at Verona, and she said she will inspect that route Wednesday. She nearly pulled off the double at the 1998 worlds in Valkenburg, Netherlands, but settled for silver in the road race. Jeannie Longo was the last woman to sweep the elite races at a world championships in 1995. Longo, now 41 years old, was ninth Tuesday. This year, van Moorsel has won 18 events, but what she aimed for all along was Tuesday's time trial. "I skipped the Tour de France this year to concentrate on this time trial," she said. "I wanted to do well in one race." The elite men's time trial of 50.6 kilometers (31.4 miles) is Wednesday. Defending champion Abraham Olano is not entered, making 1997 Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich the favorite. Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland blazed to his second straight junior men's time trial title Tuesday, finishing more than 40 seconds ahead of the field. Cancellara covered the same course used for the women's race in 30:36.30, averaging 50.686 kph (31.425 mph). Meanwhile, the sport's governing body, the International Cycling Union (UCI), announced Tuesday that all 26 riders (20 men, six women) subjected to blood tests here had passed them.
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