UCI Road World Championships: Campbell Flakemore beats Ryan Mullen in under-23 ITT

Ireland’s Ryan Mullen missed out on gold by less than half a second in the men’s world under-23 individual time trial as Great Britain’s Jon Dibben finished sixth.

Mullen, 20, looked to have secured the world title when he went fastest at both intermediate splits and then posted a quickest finishing time of 43min 50sec on a 36.1km course around Ponferrada, northern Spain.

However, Australia’s Campbell Flakemore, who had been 20 seconds down at both splits, produced a rousing final sector to snatch the rainbow jersey from Mullen by just 0.48 seconds.

Switzerland’s Stefan Kueng finished nine seconds back in third, while Dibben was 38 seconds down following an impressive ride from the 20-year-old. Britain’s other entrant, Scott Davies, finished 2min 01sec adrift in 24th.

Flakemore’s victory completed a double for Australia on the second day of the UCI Road World Championships, after Macey Stewart had earlier won the junior women’s individual time trial.

The 18-year-old negotiated a 13.9km course in 20min 08sec, ten seconds faster than runner-up Pernille Mathiesen, of Denmark, and 13 seconds ahead of fellow Australian Anna-Leeza Hull in third.

Melissa Lowther was the highest-placed Briton, finishing 27 seconds down in seventh, while Grace Garner was 1min 57sec off the pace in 41st.

Under-23 men’s individual time trial result

1 Campbell Flakemore (Australia), 43:49
2 Ryan Mullen (Ireland), +1
3 Stefan Kueng (Switzerland), +9
4 Rafael Ferreira Reis (Portugal), +19
5 Maximilian Schachmann (Germany), +38
6 Jon Dibben (Great Britain), +38
7 Andreas Vangstad (Norway), +45
8 Louis Meintjes (South Africa), +48
9 Frederick Frison (Belgium), +1:07
10 James Oram (New Zealand), +1:10

Junior individual time trial result

1 Macey Stewart (Australia), 20:08
2 Pernille Mathiesen (Denmark), +10
3 Anna-Leeza Hull (Australia), +13
4 Alexandra Manly (Australia), +13
5 Emma White (United States), +26
6 Greta Richioud (France), +26
7 Melissa Lowther (Great Britain), +27
8 Aafke Soet (Netherlands), +28
9 Daria Pikulik (Poland), +38
10 Daria Egorova (Russia), +44