UEC European Championships: Nienke Vinke storms to victory in U23 women’s time trial title

Those three riders were all in the four-woman group that contested the finale of the U23 women’s road race last week, but all left without gold as they were stunned by Mara Winter (Switzerland), who was ninth today.

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But Vinke, who’s 22 and has been racing at WorldTour level since 2023, made her power and experience count on the 22km course in Slovenia that was effectively one lap of the circuit used in the road races.

With the brutal Možjanca climb (2km at 10%), a rolling plateau, and a fast descent back towards the finish, it was a tough all-round test, but Vienke dominated the course.

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As the last starter, she was nine seconds up on Arens, three years her junior, after the flat opening 8km, and by the end of the plateau that followed the Možjanca climb she was 30 seconds to the good over Arens and Chladoňová.

There were no issues on the descent and she stopped the clock on 32:26 to win by 36 seconds from Arens and 42 seconds from Chladoňová.

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