Sunweb women claim 2017 road worlds TTT opener

The Sunweb women powered to the UCI team time trial world championship title ahead of Boels-Dolmans and Cervelo-Bigla.

Team Sunweb at the 2017 UCI Road World Championships. Source: Getty

The UCI Road World Championship opener was held on a 42km course from Ravnanger to Bergen in Norway.

Lucinda Brand, Leah Kirchmann, Floortje Mackaij, Coryn Rivera, Sabrina Stultiens and Ellen Van Dijk rode to a time of 55min 41sec, 12 seconds faster than the strong Boels-Dolmans outfit and 28 ahead of Cervelo-Bigla.

Sunweb was the sixth of the nine trade teams to start and didn't have to wait long for the victory to be confirmed as defending champions Boels-Dolmans fell short of a repeat.

“It was a really tough course and it was so important not to over pace on the climbs as you blow up the whole team so we really focused on that," Van Dijk said. 

"That was our strength, we kept it really smooth and it was feeling good all the way. This year we really didn’t expect to go for the win but when you do it really as a team like this and use each other's strengths in such a good way it’s such a satisfying feeling.

"We were the underdog and now we’re world champions.”

More to come.

The 2017 UCI Road World Championships will be held in Bergen, Norway from 167-24 September and will be broadcast on SBS Viceland and streamed online.

(L-R) Boels-Dolmans, Sunweb and Cervelo Bigla took the top three podium spots. Source: Getty