Brändli ends road race in sixth place
The Swiss cyclist, Nicole Brändli, has finished the women's World Championship road race in Lisbon in sixth place, six seconds behind the winner, Lithuania's Rasa Polikeviciute.
Polikeviciute won the 121-kilometre race in a time of 3 hours, 12 minutes and 6 seconds. Her Lithuanian compatriot, Edita Pucinskaite came second, while France’s Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli finished third.
The 20-year-old rider from Zurich, who became the first Swiss woman in five years to win a medal at the championships after taking silver in Wednesday’s time trial, remained upbeat about her performance on Saturday.
“I just started to fall behind as the Lithuanians began to attack…I played poker and I lost,” she said after the race.
The last 500 metres of the race became a three-way sprint finish between the Lithuanian pair and Longo-Ciprelli.
The Frenchwoman went for broke and made a dash for the finishing line with 300 metres to go, but Polikeviciute powered through to take gold and don the world champion’s rainbow jersey on the podium.
Two other Swiss cyclists who joined Brändli on the starting line for the road race fared less well.
Priska Doppmann finished 18th, while Annette Beutler ended the race in 60th place.
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