It's all about the time.
In the Austrian National ITT Kiesenhofer beat Schweinberger with just 0.38 seconds after 23.6 km.
As a bit of background information: Anna Kiesenhofer, Christina Schweinberger, and the Austrian cycling federation have a bit of a history, especially before the last Olympic Games in Tokyo, when Anna Kiesenhofer wasn't the favored candidate to go to the Olympics (before she won the gold medal). Of course, the situation has changed a lot since then, but some people might say there is still a bit of tension...
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Kiesenhofer has dedicated her entire life to this, not just this season 🧡 . I've been signed up to an aero (nerd) forum where she used to be quite active, especially between 2016 and 2018, and her level of detail is unmatched. She kind of starts at the point where Ballard would say it's a perfect setup and really analyzes every screw of her bike. And she is meticulous with all of her training. She blogged a little bit about the preparation for the Tokyo ITT, and not even the male pros had such a detailed preparation. Maybe the Norwegian triathletes with a bunch of support. (And 2021 women's cycling wasn't even close to male cycling.) It is such a shame that she isn't able to ride in pelotons.
However, the problem is that Paris is such an ordinary course, with nearly no elevation and normal conditions. The ordinariness of it makes it hard for Kiesenhofer, where total power plays a huge role.
On the other hand, Schweinberger isn't a pure flat ITT specialist either. She got a podium in last year's WC ITT because it was a hilly course. She isn't an ITT superstar. The question is where her priorities lie in the preparation for the Olympics and how much training she has done on the ITT. With not that many ITTs in the calendar, it is always hard to judge. That's why we have this market 😆