Giving the home fans big reason to celebrate after Rasmus Christian Quaade’s silver medal yesterday, Mads Wurtz Schmidt snagged Denmark’s first gold medal of the 2011 UCI world road race championships in the junior men’s time trial.
The young rider covered the 27.8 kilometre distance in a time of 35 minutes 7 seconds. This was four seconds quicker than the Kiwi rider James Oram, who was the early leader. Australian rider David Edwards rode very strongly early on and looked like he might depose Schmidt, but then faded towards end. He hung on for third, 21 seconds back, and twelve ahead of the Swedish rider Markus Faglum-Karlsson.
Compatriot Casper Von Folsach was sixth while the American and British riders Kristopher Jorenson and Jon Dibben were seventh and eighth.
Schmidt said he wasn’t sure what he could achieve, but that he would give everything out on the course. He went quickest, then had to sit at the finish and endure a long wait to discovery that he had indeed won. “It was a very hot seat - but I made it,” he smiled. “It is the biggest day of my life. I haven’t realised yet that I’m actually world champion - I think it will take me some days to realise.”
He said that he decided to start steadily and then ramp up the pace as the race progressed, hitting the line completely wasted. Despite this, he held the best time throughout. “I knew I had the fastest time at every time check - I had Morten Bennekou (junior coach) in the car behind me and he told me,” he said. “I wasn’t worried about the speed - actually I increased the speed through the race. It is just amazing - it is unbelievable.”
Oram was the tenth rider to start the test, going in the first of five waves of riders, and set the quickest pace early on. He was the leader for one hour 43 minutes, then was bumped down to second place. However he exceeded his own expectations and was pleased with his silver medal.
“I always go to races with the ambitions to win. To be in the hot seat pretty much all day and still end up on the podium is amazing, I couldn’t have asked for more,” he said. “I’m over the moon actually. I came to the Worlds with the expectation of being extremely happy to finish in the top five.”
Edwards was second at the first time check, just over four seconds behind Schmidt. He pushed hard but his intermediate times dropped to third-quickest, making it clear that he was no longer battling for gold. Like Oram, he was satisfied with how things turned out.
“I am really happy about my bronze medal,” he said. “It was a very good nice circuit, there were parts with wind and other parts with no wind and there were many technical turns. I liked racing inside the city…the crowds were amazing.”
The same large crowds will cheer on the Elite women’s time trial this afternoon. The Elite men will then compete tomorrow in their contest.