Déjà vu all over again. After a summer spent waiting for an arbitration panel to rule on her unsuccessful appeal to be selected on the United States team for the Rio 2016 Olympics, Amber Neben found herself fretting over another verdict in the women's time trial at the UCI Road World Championships in Doha on Tuesday afternoon.
The fastest of the day's early starters, Neben spent more than two hours in the hot seat in the finish area, watching on a small television screen as her fellow contenders edged ever closer to the intermediate times she had set around the 28.9-kilometre course.
It was a different kind of wait and, ultimately, a rather more agreeable kind of verdict, as Neben finished six seconds clear of Ellen van Dijk (Netherlands) and eight ahead of Katrin Garfoot (Australia) to claim her second world time trial crown, eight years after her first rainbow jersey in Varese in 2008.
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"That was probably the hardest part of the day. The racing obviously is hard, but we enjoy putting ourselves on the line like that," Neben said afterwards. "But sitting in the hot seat and having to watch people come so close was tough. My heart was skipping beats; I was really anxious.
"It was a long wait. I think I used more energy sitting there waiting than I did on the bike. It was so hard to watch. I feel for Ellen, but at the same time I'm so excited to be able to hold on."
The two American time triallists in Doha – Neben and Carmen Small, who placed 12th – had each appealed USA Cycling's selection for the Olympic Games, and then had to watch from the sidelines as Kristin Armstrong, out of retirement, claimed the gold medal in Brazil. For the 41-year-old Neben, it was likely her final chance to land an Olympic medal, but she managed to digest that setback and recalibrate ahead of the Worlds.
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