Linda Villumsen wins women's time trial at World Championships

New Zealand’s Linda Villumsen won a closely fought elite women’s individual time trial on the third day of the UCI Road World Championships in the United States.

Just 9.32 seconds separated the top four on a rolling 30km course in Richmond, with Villumsen edging out runner-up Anna van der Breggen by 2.5 seconds and third-placed Lisa Brennauer by 5.2 seconds.

Villumsen claimed the rainbow jersey for the first time in her career, having finished either second or third in five consecutive years from 2009-13.

However, she was almost denied it once again after Van der Breggen mounted a ferocious fightback from being 14 seconds down on Villumsen at the third and final time split, only to fall narrowly short.

Britain's Hayley Simmonds finished 2min 54sec down in 26th place.

 Villumsen said: "I just can't believe it. I came in with a big motivation today and had the best team around me. It was an incredible feeling.

"I heard I had good splits, but I didn't know at that time what was behind me, so I can only think, 'Go as fast as I can'."

Earlier in the day, Germany's Leo Appelt won the junior men's individual time trial, beating American duo Adrien Costa and Brandon McNulty into second and third place by 17 and 59 seconds respectively.

Elite women's individual time trial result

1 Linda Villumsen (New Zealand), 40:29

2 Anna van der Breggen (Netherlands), +2sec

3 Lisa Brennauer (Germany), +5

4 Katrin Garfoot (Australia), +9

5 Kristin Armstrong (United States), +20

6 Evelyn Stevens (United States), +26

7 Ellen van Dijk (Netherlands), +53

8 Alena Amialiusik (Belarus), +1:06

9 Ann-Sophie Duyck (Belgium), +1:19

10 Trixi Worrack (Germany), same time

Junior men's individual time trial result

1 Leo Appelt (Germany), 37:45

2 Adrien Costa (United States), +17sec

3 Brandon McNulty (United States), +59

4 Keagan Girdlestone (South Africa), +1:07

5 Gino Mader (Switzerland), +1:11

6 Jasper Philipsen (Belgium), +1:22

7 Niklas Larsen (Denmark), +1:34

8 Tobias Foss (Denmark), +1:35

9 Ilya Gorbushin (Kazakhstan), +1:52

10 Alexys Brunel (France), same time