25th place finish "very disappointing" admits Bauke Mollema after individual time trial

The Dutch national time trial champion Bauke Mollema went into the individual time trial in Wollongong with high hopes of securing the rainbow jersey. However it ended up being a bit of an anti climax with Mollema coming home in 25th place over 2 minutes behind eventual winner Tobias Foss.

So bad was Mollema's time trial, Switzerland's Stefan Kung, who left the start ramp a minute and a half after the Dutchman, actually overtook Mollema on the course. “I could already see from my wattages that it wasn't good enough. I pushed away maybe twenty watts less than what I should be able to, and what I already rode earlier this year."

Mollema seemed at a complete loss when asked in a post-race interview what had gone wrong, "What's the matter? Good question, I don't know. I was able to train well all week and also pedaled good wattages. I also felt just fine in the morning before the start.” He then went on to say "The start went well. The first five to ten minutes, they still felt good. However, I couldn't speed up after that. You really have to accelerate on this course after the bends and on the climbs, but that didn't work at all,"

The race was surprisingly won by Norwegian national champ, Tobias Foss. 2:18 ahead of Bauke Mollema and edging out runner up Stefan Kung by just 2 seconds to secure the famed rainbow jersey for the first time in his career.