Lisa Brennauer (Specialized-Lululemon) continued her dream week when she added the time trial world championships title to the win she took earlier this week in the team time trial. The result crowns a consistent season that has seen her finish in the top 2 in all time trials she has done.

Going into the women’s time trial world championships, most eyes were on defending champion Ellen Van Dijk and Linda Villumsen who had finished on the podium four years in a row. However, a closer look at the results from this season’s time trial would reveal that the favourite was maybe Lisa Brennauer.

In the first part of the year, the German has done 5 time trials and she has finished in the top 2 in all of them, winning the TTs in Auensteiner-Radsporttage and the prologue and the TT in the Thüringen Rundfahrt. In the most important race of the year, she continued her consistent showing when he took a clear win in the battle for the rainbow jersey, adding another title to the one she took with Specialized-Lululemon in the team time trial on the opening day.

“I think for me it couldn’t have been any better so I am very happy right now,” she said at the post-race press conference, referring to the dream start to her Worlds campaign.

Brennauer may have been strong in the TTs in the first part of the year but she refused to take anything for granted in Ponferrada. Knowing that the Worlds are famously known for their many surprises, she were prepared for another upset.

“I am still surprised,” she said. “Right now I can’t believe it. The World Championships have their own rules. Sometimes there are some people that you don’t see the whole year and that only prepare for this one race so they are not on your radar. I am very happy. I need some time to really realize it.”

Last year Brennauer finished 11th in her debut at the race and so today’s win is a massive improvement. A combination of a better health and a longer course made it possible for her to improve massively on last year’s result.

“For me it was totally different than last year,” she said. “I was a bit sick at last year’s World Championships but you are right. The longer, the better for me. So I was really happy that this race was pretty long.”

On Saturday, Brennauer will try to make it three out of three when she lines up in the road race as part of the German team.