Mark Maloney on sports

Amber Neben, who earlier in the week won the elite women’s time trial, was the top American cyclist in Saturday’s road race in the UCI Road World Championships at Varese, Italy.

Neben, from Irvine, Calif., finished 22nd, 1:56 behind the winner. Kristin Armstrong of Boise, Idaho, placed 39th and Kori Seehafer of Louisville, Colo., took 67th. Californians Brooke Miller, Katheryn Curi-Mattis and Christine Thorburn did not finish, the latter because of an early crash.

Olympic gold-medalist Nicole Cooke of Great Britain added the world title with a time of 3 hours, 42 minutes, 11 seconds for eight laps over a 17-kilometer circuit. Marianne Vos, the 2006 world champion from the Netherlands, and Judith Arndt of Germany finished 2-3 in the same time as Cook.

Tejay Van Garderen of Fort Collins, Colo., had the top finish by an American cyclist Friday in the UCI Road World Championships at Varese, Italy.

Van Garderen wound up 25th out of 167 riders in the 173-kilometer men’s U23 road race. He, along with Chad Beyer (39th, from Anaheim, Calif.) and Peter Stetina (52nd, from Boulder, Colo.) finished in the main peloton, 33 seconds behind the six-man lead breakaway. Kirk Carlsen (96th, from Sandown, N.H.) finished 12:01 off the pace. Chris Barton (Ojai, Calif.) dropped out after working to chase the breakaways.

Fabio Andres Duarte Arevalo of Colombia claimed the gold medal, with Simone Ponzi of Italy taking the silver. The bronze went to John Degenkolb of Germany. All the medalists were timed in 4 hours, 17 minutes, 2 seconds.

Olympic cyclist Amber Neben of Irvine, Calif., captured first place in the elite women’s time trial Wednesday at the UCI Road World Championships in Varese, Italy.

Neben’s time of 33 minutes, 51.35 seconds for 25 kilometers was seven seconds faster than Christine Soeder of Austria. Judith Arndt of Germany was another 14 seconds behind, taking the bronze medal in a field of 43 riders.

Neben placed fifth in 2005 and fourth in 2007. She is the fourth American to win an elite women’s time trial world title. The others are Beijing Olympics gold-medalist Kristin Armstrong (2006), Mari Holden (2000) and Karen Kurreck (1994). The U.S. is tied with France for most world titles since the event became a World Champs discipline in 1994.

Neben’s win Wednesday and Armstrong’s win at Beijing mark the first time one country has won women’s World and Olympic cycling titles in the same year in the same event.

Armstrong finished fifth Wednesday, 25 seconds behind Neben and two seconds back of fourth-place Tatiana Antoshina of Russia. Christine Thorburn of Sunnyvale, Calif., finished 12th.

A late-race mechanical mishap kept Neben from a shot at an Olympic medal last month. Since then, she also won the five-day Tour of Ardeche in France and had top-five time-trial finishes in Italy and Switzerland.