Elena Cecchini was CANYON//SRAM Racing’s best placed rider in tenth place after the women’s road race world championships in Bergen, Norway.

The race was won by Chantal Blaak (NED) after a well-timed solo attack from the final breakaway that included Hannah Barnes.

Barnes, Blaak and Audrey Cordon (FRA) were in a three rider breakaway with 30 seconds advantage going into the final 19km lap.

“I knew that we needed to get over Salmon Hill the final time before the leaders caught us. There wasn’t much talk amongst us at that point,” said Barnes after the race.

The trio were caught by another four riders over the summit of the final climb and Barnes was outnumbered with three Dutch in the group of seven. Blaak made a well-timed attack and despite Barnes’ efforts to get the chase group to cohere, Blaak stayed away.

“It was frustrating when no one wanted to work to bring Chantal back, but she did the ideal attack and had the numbers to play to her advantage.”

Barnes, who also finished ninth in the ITT on Tuesday, added “I am a little disappointed but I am pleased with how the British team raced and how I raced. It was a really cool and fun race and I enjoyed it a lot.”

In the final 500m the reduced peloton caught the remainder of Barnes’ breakaway. Elena Cecchini sprinted to 10th and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot was 11th. Both riders were involved in crashes earlier in the race.

“I crashed in the first 500m of the race because of another rider and it broke my rear derailleur. It took some time to do the bike change because we were car 9 and then I had to chase hard alone to get back to the peloton,” said Ferrand-Prévot.

“It took me nearly four laps to recover from that effort. I started to feel better and then I could go with the favourites on the main climb. But on the final lap I missed some power and couldn’t go with those four.”

Ferrand-Prévot went on “I’m not disappointed because it’s a one day race and everything can happen, like for example crashes. I gave everything I had to get back and then again at the end so I’m satisfied for that.”

Brennauer and Worrack finished in the second and third chase groups respectively. Worrack said “I didn’t feel great but I still could stay with the main group until the final lap on Salmon Hill.”