Cycling World Cup
Christina Schweinberger shone again in the final World Championship road race in Glasgow and finished fifth, just missing out on her second medal after bronze in the time trial. With that, Schweinberger equaled the best result ever achieved by the Austrian Cycling Association (ÖRV) in a professional World Championship road race after Harald Maier’s fifth place in Italy in 1985.
13.08.2023 17.33
Online since today, 5.33 p.m
After 158 kilometers from Loch Lomond to Glasgow, Belgium’s Lotte Kopecky secured the gold medal in Scotland, seven seconds ahead of Demi Vollering from the Netherlands and Cecilie Ludwig from Denmark. Schweinberger finished 34 seconds behind the new world champion, who marked another milestone in her career after her success in the Tour de France Femmes.
But Schweinberger could also be satisfied. Spurred on by time trial bronze, she again showed an unbelievable race – for a long time the Swiss Elise Chabbey drove as a soloist at the front. Schweinberger was in the initially 30-strong chasing group, which shrank to seven riders 20 kilometers from the finish, and was often seen in front. About 14 kilometers from the finish, Chabbey was caught and overtaken.
Decisive attack
Schweinberger and her prominent colleagues had nothing to counter the attack by the Belgian Kopecky. However, the Tyrolean bundled her remaining strength and stayed within touching distance of a possible medal up to the 3 km mark before she had to give in. In the sprint for fifth place, she beat Briton Elisabeth Deignan.
Twin sister Kathrin Schweinberger finished 38th, 14:49 minutes behind, Carina Schrempf was 48th at the same time. Elisa Winter and Leila Gschwendtner finished the demanding World Championship race prematurely.
In total, Austria recorded 14 medals after the first Multi-Bike World Championships – two gold medals from the mountain bikers Valentina Höll and Mona Mitterwallner, three silver medals and nine bronze medals.