NZ junior cyclists impress at world champs

New Zealand riders Jason Christie and Georgia Williams have made strong starts to the world road cycling championships in Copenhagen.

Christie (Ashburton) and Williams (Auckland) placed sixth in the time trials of the men's under-23 and junior women's events, respectively, through the streets of downtown Copenhagen, the opening races of this year's world championships.

Christie, 20, was 12th through the first time check and worked his way to ninth fastest after the first lap at the 17.6km mark. He continued to lift his pace to improve to sixth in 44 minutes 47.61 seconds for the 35.2km test won by Luke Durbridge, a member of Australia's world champion team pursuit combination on the track earlier this year, in a stunning 42:47.13.

The Ashburton rider was pleased with his performance in tricky conditions.

''It was pretty good. I think it could have been a little bit better but I am happy with sixth in the world for under-23s. I can't complain with that,'' Christie said.

There was plenty of support for the riders in the opening races of the world championships in the cycle-centric city where 60 per cent of the population ride bikes, most of them as their primary means of daily transport.

''There were a lot of Danish people out today supporting on the side of the roads. This is an amazing city for cycling with so many people out with city or town bikes all the time here. It's unreal. You don't see that back home.''

It's Christie's only ride of the championships and he will now return home after enjoying a strong season in Europe riding for the Chinese-owned Marco Polo Cycling team, along with Timaru's Marc Ryan, as well as riding with the BikeNZ under-23 team and backing Julian Dean at the London Olympic test event where he was the leading Kiwi.

He will prepare for the Tour of Southland where he will support Hayden Roulston and then build up for next year's road season where he hopes to gain selection to a professional team in Europe.

Williams finished sixth in the 13.9km junior women's time trial to continue a strong season.

She won a silver medal in the individual pursuit and was fourth in the team pursuit at the recent junior track world championships in Moscow.

The teenager started strongly to be fifth fastest through the 6.7km time check, 12 seconds off the top ranked rider, but slowed over the second half of the 13.9km circuit to clock 20:02.58, which was 34 seconds behind winner Jessica Allen (Australia).

Tomorrow Linda Villumsen is in action in the elite women's time trial, while James Oram and Fraser Gough will compete in the junior men time trial.