21 new World Champions awarded in the time trial

With Slovenian Tina Usenicnik starting at 1pm and winning the first worldtitle 40 minutes later, the 2021 UCI Gran Fondo World Championships have officially started with a 20.7km time trial in the city center of Pale and a back and forth loop to a turning point halfway with some elevation.

21 World titles have been awarded with apart from Tina in the F70-74 age group also her compatriot Jozefa Anzel (F65-69), French Jeannie Longo (F60-64) adding another world title to her enormous palmares and Veved Elkayam winning a first ever world title for Israel in the F55-59 category.

Larissa Drysdale beated all of her competitors by more than 2 minutes in the F50-54 for another world title while Russian Marina Letaeva won her F45-49 age group by more than a minute.

Swedish Cecilia Hansen renewed her title from two years ago to win her F40-44 group while Alyna Mylka was the strongest in the F35-39 category. The final world title went to British Jessica Rhodes Jones (F19-34) in a close battle with the defending world champion Laura Simenc.

The oldest males started an hour later for their battles with 30 seconds interval with Latvian Mecislavs Bartusevics as first new World champion in the M80-84 where two riders signed up.

Austrian Josef Bichl was the strongest in the M75-79 with his compatriot Gottfried Hinterholzer winning gold in the M70-74 category. A third Austrian Johann Taucher took the rainbow jersey in the M65-69.

Australian Alan Nelson managed to leave his country to win the M60-64 title while Swiss Daniel Christen grabbed the gold in the M55-59 age group.

Irish Greg Swinand managed to renew his title in the M50-54 category and Andrej Gucek won a very close battle with former World Champion Igor Kopce by only three seconds between the two Slovenians.

The last three world titles of the day went to Laurent Derain (M40-44) and two Polish riders, Marcin Bialoblocki in the M35-39 and Michal Braulinski in the M19-34 age group.

Fastest time of the day was for French Laurent Derain in an average speed of 49 km/h while Cecilia Hansen scored the overall fastest female time in an average speed of 43.5 km/h, both in the 40-44 age group.

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