20-year-old Antonia Niedermaier surprisingly won the title in the individual time trial of the U-23 women on the road at the World Cycling Championships in Scotland. The woman from Rosenheim, who had already surprised at the Giro d’Italia by winning the queen’s stage in July, clinched victory over 36.2 kilometers in 49:27 minutes on Thursday ahead of Cedrine Kerbaol from France with a lead of seven seconds.
As in the previous year, the U-23 category was held as part of the women’s competition. In the women’s classification, Niedermaier ended up in a respectable eleventh place. She was 2:27 minutes behind American Chloe Dygert, who was celebrating her happy ending after a long period of suffering.
Olympic qualification in ski mountaineering?
Niedermaier is considered a great talent in German cycling. At the same time, she is also active in ski mountaineering and has her sights set on participating in the 2026 Winter Games. In Cortina d’Ampezzo, the sport will be part of the Olympic program.
The young German had already proven her talent in 2021 with third place in the junior world championships. After moving to the WorldTour this year, the rise continued rapidly. On the fifth Giro stage, she duped all of the competition and won ahead of Dutch cycling star Annemiek van Vleuten. But the shock followed just one day later when she was swept away by Tadej Pogacar’s girlfriend Urska Zigart in a fall and had to give up with a facial injury.
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Dygert also has bad memories of a fall. In 2020, the 26-year-old had slashed her thigh on a guard rail during the World Cup time trial in Imola and had to undergo several surgeries. She then contracted the Epstein-Barr virus before she had to undergo heart surgery last fall. Now she won the world title again after four years. A few days ago, on the track, she had won the rainbow jersey in the 3,000-meter pursuit ahead of Franziska Brausse.
Dygert won the women’s time trial ahead of Grace Brown of Australia and Christina Schweinberger of Austria. “It’s very special. Not just for me, but for the whole team. I trust God’s plan in this process,” Dygert said.
