As defending champion, 19 year-old Mikkel Bjerg was the hot favourite for the U23 Individual Time Trial title at the UCI Road World Championships Innsbruck-Tirol today.
The Danish rider was way ahead of all his rivals at each intermediate time check, and capped off the performance with a margin of 33 seconds over Belgium’s Brent Van Moer and 38 seconds over his compatriot Mathias Norsgaard Jorgensen who is also not only his training partner, but also his fiancé’s brother.
“The course suited me really well”, said Mikkel Bjerg. “It was similar to Bergen, shorter but more explosive. We worked with our coach to be able to go really hard on the climbs and recover for being fast on the flat at the end. Mathias [Norsgaard Jorgensen] and I train a lot together. I’m engaged to his sister.
“A good training environment has paid off today. Normally at the end of the season, it’s hard mentally, but we were able to push each other to perform this late.”
MEN UNDER 23 TEAM TIME TRIAL PODIUM
1 – Mikkel Bjerg – 27.7km in 32’31.05”, average speed 51.111km/h
2 – Brent Van Moer at 33.47”
3 – Mathias Norsgaard Jorgensen at 38.30”
