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Copenhagen 2011: Great Britain's Lucy Garner wins gold in junior women's road race

16-year-old from Leicestershire caps tremendous season with rainbow jersey

Lucy Garner has won Britain’s first gold medal of the 2011 UCI Road World Championships in Copenhagen in the junior women’s road race. In a hard fought finale, Garner kept her composure as Belgium’s Jessy Druyts drifted across her line before launching her sprint to clinch the rainbow jersey. Christina Siggaard of Denmark finished third.

Garner had crashed earlier on in the race but in the end won the sprint by several bike lengths after coming through the bunch from nowhere, and had time to celebrate, a huge smile on her face, as she crossed the line.

The 16-year-old from Leicestershire who rides for Motorpoint has burst onto the senior women’s scene in the UK this year with victories in cluding the Cheshire Classic and second place overall in the new Johnson Health Tech Women's Grand Prix Series, winning the closing round in Woking.

After crossing the line to take the world title today, Garner, nails painted with the union flag to match her GB jersey, said: “It feels amazing... I can’t actually describe how it feels. There were two riders up the road and I didn’t think they were going to catch them.

“Our team did so well early on, attacking, making all the moves, and trying to get them back,” she added. “I rode the course before, so I knew where the finish was, a lot of the girls went quite early, but I knew that if I went early I’d blow. So I just paced myself and managed to get it.”

Racing continues this afternoon with the men’s Under-23 road race.
 

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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WolfieSmith | 12 years ago
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... Ahem. But back to Lucy for a sec... Well done girl! My daughter is 9 now and this kind for result is so important to encourage more women onto bikes. Fantastic result and it sounds like a tough win as well.

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Simon_MacMichael | 12 years ago
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He's in the Elite. Besides anything else, since he's been signed to a ProTeam for the 2011 season, he's not allowed to ride the U23 (likewise Alex Dowsett, 2010 champ Michael Matthews etc).

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Cooks | 12 years ago
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Is Peter Sagan riding in the U23 or the Elite?

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arrieredupeleton | 12 years ago
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That's made my day. Well done Lucy. Good luck to Luke Rowe and the lads fir later.

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