Australian national time trial champion Katrin Garfoot produced a strong ride to became the first Australian to win the Chrono Champenois-Trophée Européen, on Sunday.

The Queenslander, who rides for Orica-AIS but lined up with the Australian National Team was the final rider to start the 33.4 kilometre course, stopping the clock in 44 minutes and 13 seconds to take her sixth win of 2016.

Garfoot beat out Olympic silver medallist Olga Zabelinskaya (BePink) by 12 seconds and former world champion Ellen Van Dijk (Netherlands) to stand on the top step of the podium in a field that included three former world time trial champions.

"The win today meant a lot to me, because of the illness and the lack of quality training time and the disappointment due to this at the Olympics," Garfoot said.

"I needed to convince myself that I am worthy of competing at the Worlds and I think I managed that. Now I have the motivation I was looking for to squeeze a quality block of training in before trying my best in Qatar," added Garfoot who is hoping to be selected for the UCI Road World Championships in October and improve on her fourth place finish last year.

"This was also my first European ITT win, which makes it extra special. That I am the first Australian to win the women event is a bonus, which I did not know about."

With few time trials on the calendar the worlds best against the clock lined up for an opportunity to test their form ahead of next months World Championships.

"I think it is great that we have the Chrono Champenois as an ITT event, since there are so few time trial races in the season and I like winning champagne."

Cycling Australia