Aucklander Williams kept up with the peloton for most of the race but was dropped on the final climb. She finished in 47th place, 4min behind the bunch and 11min 1sec down on the winner, Olympic champion Anna van der Breggen, of the Netherlands.
National under-23 champion Grace Anderson (Auckland) finished 66th in her first elite world championships, while Wanaka’s Mikayla Harvey rode strongly in support of her team-mates during the first 100km of the journey before dropping out.
The field split on the tough initial climb on to the circuit-proper and half the field failed to finish.
Williams produced an encouraging result, given she has only recently returned to the World Tour scene following a training ride crash that resulted in a triple fracture of her hip.
New Zealand director Craig Geater who also works for Williams’ Mitchelton Scott team, said her pro team bosses were impressed.
"To be honest, no-one thought she would recover in time to even be here so it was an awesome ride from Georgia," Geater said.
"She is still really two or three weeks away from full fitness. She was fantastic today and shows why she is such an important part of her pro team.
"We were impressed with both Grace and Mikayla. The field got split on the nasty first climb after the initial 60km run and many of those riders, including some big hitters in the sport, never got back on.
"But both girls fought hard and got back in touch with the peloton. Grace held on for the next lap and then got dropped while Mikayla was timed out by the commissaires with a group of riders.
"If these two young riders could race more often in Europe, then they would really respond to the competition and the harder riding here," Geater said.
