Already with three bronze medals and two silvers to her name in the category, the 2015 UCI Road World Championships saw New Zealand’s Linda Villumsen finally claim gold in the Elite Women’s Individual Time Trial on Tuesday.

Villumsen’s consistency and versatility on all kinds of time trialling terrain had netted her a bronze medal in the Individual Time Trial in Mendrisio in 2009, in Australia in 2010 and in Valkenburg in 2012, as well as silver in Copenhagen in 2011 and Florence in 2013. That elusive gold medal finally arrived this September in Richmond Virginia, thanks to the 30-year-old’s slender but sufficient final 2.5 second margin over Holland’s Anna Van der Breggen, whilst defending champion Lisa Brennauer of Germany claimed the bronze.

In an enthrallingly close-fought competition on broad, rolling city roads, Villumsen pounded out a relentlessly steady pace that kept her close or on top of the intermediate time check rankings for the entire 30 kilometres. But with all the seven top classified riders clocking times at the finish line within a minute of each other, it had clearly been touch and go all the way.

“In a race like this you go out and you give it everything you’ve got,” Villumsen said afterwards. “I knew I had the best team support I could ask for and my motivation was very good. It’s amazing, unbelievable.”

One of Villumsen’s key rivals was Kristin Armstrong, a former double World Time Trial winner who returned from retirement this year and who had taken gold in Mendrisio back in 2009, the first year that Villumsen made the Elite Women’s Individual Time Trial podium. The winner of the US national title again earlier this year, Armstrong’s early start in Richmond and resulting lack of references on her rivals did not stop her from clocking a powerful time of 40-50. This proved to be the fastest performance of the first three waves of riders, meaning Armstrong’s time was the one for the fourth and final wave to beat.

Part of that final wave, Van der Breggen’s blistering start allowed her to gain four seconds on Villumsen and clock the fastest time at the first checkpoint. But the New Zealander’s steadier racing style subsequently saw her inch ahead of the Netherlands rider by six seconds at the course’s mid-way time check, with Armstrong ousted down to fourth best position, ten seconds adrift.

Whilst Germany’s Lisa Brennauer, sixth in the first time check, dramatically upped her pace in the second half of the 30 kilometre course, Van der Breggen was looking increasingly like the only rider who could come close to Villumsen, squeezing the gap between the two down as the closing kilometres flashed by.

Villumsen’s excellent finishing time of 40-29, averaging over 44 kmh, was clearly going to be enough to net the New Zealander a podium position. Yet Van der Breggen’s late surge was so impressive it allowed the 25-year-old reigning Dutch national time trial champion to fight for gold all the way to the finish, finally falling short by the bare minimum of 2.5 seconds. Brennauer, meanwhile, pounded back into the frame to claim the bronze, just five seconds down on Villumsen in a dramatically close finale.