Sept 20 (Reuters) - Switzerland's Marlen Reusser retained her rainbow jersey in the women's elite individual time trial at the UCI Road World Championships in Montreal on Sunday, defending her title on her 35th birthday with a winning time of 50 minutes, 24.44 seconds.
Britain's Zoe Backstedt claimed silver, finishing 40.11 seconds behind Reusser, while Germany's Franziska Koch took bronze, 45.54 seconds adrift.
The 39.2-kilometre course wound through Montreal along the St. Lawrence River, over the Samuel
De Champlain Bridge and through Circuit Gilles Villeneuve before tackling an uphill finish in Old Montreal.
Reusser, nicknamed 'The Flying Elephant', captured the rainbow jersey in Kigali 2025 and said the demanding nature of the course this year had left her nervous.
"On the one hand, I was looking forward to it because it has so many challenges and technical aspects. But from the side of pacing, how fast you should go, to cope with the challenges, I was really nervous," Reusser said.
"We don't have time trials like this really.
"We had loads of discussions with the performance coach about the pacing strategy."
Tour de France champion Demi Vollering of the Netherlands was unable to match the specialists, finishing eighth, 1:49.94 behind Reusser.
"I think I cannot be negative yet," Vollering said. "I felt it was a good time trial, a good rhythm, and I was actually happy.
"Then I heard Marlen was coming from the back, and I was like: 'Wow, Marlen is flying today like all the other time trials'.
"I lost a little bit of focus at this moment, but tried to come back to it. I had thought I was doing well. But it was really a course for the specialists."
The championships returned to Montreal for the first time in 52 years and marked the third time Canada has hosted the event, following editions in Montreal in 1974 and Hamilton in 2003.
(Reporting by Pearl Josephine Nazare in Goa;Editing by Christian Radnedge)
