Pro cyclist Teniel Campbell gears up for 4th Road Worlds stint

WOMEN’S pro cyclist Teniel Campbell is gearing up for her fourth stint at the International Cycling Union (UCI) Road World Championships which gets under way in Flanders, Belgium on Sunday.

Campbell will compete in the 157.7 kilometre elite women’s road race on September 25. The race begins in Antwerp and pedals south to the finish line in Leuven.

The 23-year-old battles against the globe’s best riders with 2020 Olympic road race champion Anne Kiesenhofer (Austria) and defending Road Worlds champion Anna van der Breggen in the mix.

Campbell has shown a good run of form of recent and will be hoping to execute similarly at her fourth Road Worlds appearance.

On Sunday, the TT road cyclist won stage six of the Tour de l’Ardeche in France while representing Women’s World Team BikeExchange. This was her first victory since joining the Spain-based Australian team.

She covered the 138km race in three hours, 33 minutes and 58 seconds. Campbell’s stage-winning effort was also achieved on a borrowed bike after hers and 11 other teammates’ had their bicycles stolen prior to the race.

She also escaped a crash on final stretch to secure the all-important win for BikeExchange.

This result came on the heels of Campbell’s Olympic debut at the Tokyo Games. Although she was unable to complete the 137km distance in Tokyo, the lanky rider remains the first Caribbean female cyclist to compete in a road event at the Summer Games.

TT Cycling Federation (TTCF) president Rowena Williams congratulated the Olympian on her recent success.

“To be able to win a stage at that level (pro) is always a great achievement.

“It speaks about her fitness because being able to race against the top countries in the world and get that result is no easy task. She is doing very well and kudos goes out to her coaches.

“The fact that she is still abroad (Europe) training also speaks volumes and shows what is required to get them (athletes) to that level,” she said.

Williams also paid tribute to men’s flying 200m world record holder (9.1 seconds) Nicholas Paul and Akil Campbell on their golden performances at the UCI Nations Cup in Cali, Colombia four days ago.

There, Paul won triple-gold (sprint, keirin and kilometre time trial) while Campbell emerged champion of the men’s elimination race at their first-ever Nations Cup.

The local cycling head added that Nicholas Paul may be TT’s lone representative at the upcoming UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Roubaix, France (October 20-24). She said that TTCF should receive their final point quotas for the World Championships by next week. This will determine how many TT athletes can compete at the meet.

“Congratulations to Nicholas and Akil. Their results speak to where they are at right now performance-wise. I think a lot of it has to do with them racing over the last few months. It has kept them at a high fitness level.

“We now await the final quotas for the World Championships. We’re still waiting on that information and it may be released by next week or so. More than likely Nicholas Paul would qualify,” Williams said.