Riding a canny, calculating race, Norwegian rider Thor Hushovd showed his strength on the final lap with a superb sprint victory to become world champion. The 32 year old overhauled Danish rider Matti Breschel inside the final 100 metres of the Elite road race, with bronze medallist Allan Davis giving the Australian home crowd something to cheer about after Cadel Evans’ repeated, courageous efforts to successfully defend his title didn’t pay off.
Evans and Belgian rider Philippe Gilbert were arguably the two strongest riders, with the latter uncorking a brilliant acceleration on the final ascent of the Ridge climb and scorching clear of the front group. He opened a gap of over twenty seconds over chasers Evans and Paul Maertens (Germany), but the mainly-flat run-in to the line led to a regrouping behind and his recapture with approximately three kilometres to go.
Vladimir Gusev (Russia) and Janez Brajkovic (Slovenia) then clipped away but were brought back by the chasing group; Freire tried to manoeuvre himself into position to take a record fourth world title but it was Breschel who looked quickest. He powered clear and appeared to be a probable winner, only to see gold turn into silver when an impressive Hushovd powered past.
“It is hard to understand that I have won the worlds,” said Hushovd, clearly very proud. “It is a dream, and sometimes I felt it was an unreal dram. Now I have won it in Geelong, Australia…it is amazing, I am speechless.”
He admitted that he was worried when a dangerous 32-man move went clear inside the final 90 kilometres. “For a while, it was only Spain riding with one or two guys, and I was afraid it was over at that moment. Then Russia and some other teams came along and we finally came back. And we had Edvald Boasson Hagen in front, so I could just sit easy in the bunch. For us it was perfect.”
After that, the rest of the race went to plan; Hushovd had fresh-enough legs to go with a break on the final ascent of The Ridge, although Gilbert was further ahead at this point. Things then came back together for the sprint and he had the oomph to speed past Breschel and grab the win.
The Danish rider was initially frustrated, then later seemed pleased enough with his silver medal. “We did a great race today. I had the motivation with my bronze from a couple of years ago, so we knew what we had to do and everybody worked perfectly.”
The podium was completed by Davis, and he was delighted to grab a medal in front of an Australian crowd. “It was something special, hopefully I can do it again,” he said. “For me, I've been pretty close in my under 23 and professional career to being on the podium so it's something special without a doubt. I wouldn't have been there without my team-mates. I've got a couple of close mates within this team and to all in general, thank you very much boys because I couldn't have got on the podium without you.”
Cadel Evans was the clear team leader today, and he had a chance to fight hard to try to retain his jersey. “Cadel (Evans) and I were protected all day and we played our cards awesome,” Davis said. “So thanks guys, thanks to all the staff, for all the help throughout the week. It's been a successful world championships for Australia in general. I was very confident with my form and I've had this in the back of my mind all year…. I knuckled down and held on, and it's a reward for all the hard work you put in. I'm really happy.”
The top ten was completed by Italian team leader Filippo Pozzato, Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium), Oscar Freire (Spain), Alexandr Kolobnev (Russia), and the outsiders Assan Bazayev (Kazakhstan), Yukiya Arashiro (Japan) and Romain Feillu (France).
Freire had felt that he was coming into top form and had hoped to add to the rainbow jerseys he won in 1999, 2001 and 2005. However he was missing a little at the end, and said that he had made a tactical error earlier in the race. “The peloton split many times and I was always going forward,” he said. “It was a pity that on one of the laps, I went back to see who was there, and the group split. It was the only time throughout the race that I relaxed, and that caught me out.”
Hushovd did likewise but he, Freire and the others got back in contact. From that point on the Norwegian did things just right and, as a result, took the biggest result of his career. He’s looking forward to his wearing the rainbow jersey in competition, telling interviewers after the race that he had a big ambition in mind.
“There is one goal, and it is Paris-Roubaix,” he said. “It would be the biggest dream ever [to enter the velodrome as winner with the rainbow jersey]. Now I will just enjoy this, I will try to enjoy every day of this winter. I will just look at the jersey and just enjoy this, as I have this chance and maybe it will not happen again.”
Garmin-Transitions CEO Jonathan Vaughters is also excited by the thought. He will have both Hushovd and world TT champion Emma Pooley on his squad next year, as both Cervélo Test Team riders are moving across. That is certain to bring both attention and also the chance to let lose with the designers.
“Rainbow/Argyle,” he said on Twitter soon after the race. “Oh man.... The imagination runs wild...”
Battle for the rainbow bands:
The race began with an 83 kilometre stretch from Melbourne to Geelong, and would then be followed by eleven laps of the tough 15.9 kilometre finishing circuit there. A total of 178 riders lined out in bright conditions and, immediately after the end of the neutralised section, Matt Brammeier (Ireland) surged clear. He was quickly joined by Oleksandr Kvachuk (Ukraine), Mohammed Said Elammoury (Morocco), Diego Alejandro Tamayo Martinez (Colombia) and Jackson Rodriguez (Venezuela), while Esad Hasanovic (Serbia) missed the move but continued to chase alone.
The peloton was not worried by the early move and after just 25 kilometres of racing, the break was already over twelve minutes ahead. By the time it reached the finishing circuit, it was a very considerable 23 minutes clear. Hasanovic was in no-man’s land, ten minutes down, and resigned to the fact that he would not be able to bridge to those in front.
From that point, the gap began to drop slightly; after 114 kilometres of racing, two full laps into the finishing circuit, the five leaders were 10 minutes 45 seconds up on Hasanovic and 20 minutes 41 seconds ahead of the peloton. The climbs were hurting the riders in the bunch and a big split happened there, with Mark Cavendish (Great Britain) one of those under big pressure.
The peloton regrouped by the time it hit the first climb, The Ridge, on lap three. At the end of the lap four of the leaders were four minutes ahead of Said Elammoury, thirteen up on Hasanovic and 15 minutes 35 in front of the main bunch.
Hasanovic was caught with fractionally over 100 kilometres remaining. Around about the same time, the peloton split again and the Italians ramped up the pace to increase the pressure on those behind. After the next ascent of The Ridge, the peloton split again and this time it spelt real danger for those in the second half. Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland) was behind the 32-man lead group and looking very unlikely to pull off the double he was targeting.
Those up front included Gilbert, Leif Hoste and Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium), Breschel and Chris Sörensen (Denmark), André Greipel and Tony Martin (both Germany), Filippo Pozzato, Francesco Gavazzi, Giovanni Visconti and Vincenzo Nibali (Italy), Cadel Evans, Stuart O'Grady and Simon Gerrans (Australia), Haimar Zubeldia, Carlos Barredo and Ruben Plaza (Spain), Wout Poels (Netherlands), Jose Rodolfo Serpa Perez (Colombia), Edvald Boasson Hagen (Norway), Yury Trofimov (Russian Federation), Michael Albasini (Switzerland), Yoann Offredo (France), Lars Boom (Netherlands), Nicolas Roche (Ireland), Tejay Van Garderen (United States of America), Steve Morabito (Switzerland) and Koos Moerenhout (Netherlands).
They had closed to just over seven minutes after 187 kilometres of racing, and very soon afterwards the quintet up front became weakened when Brammeier and Rodriguez slipped back. Soon afterwards, Kyachuk went clear and opened up a growing advantage over his former companions with four laps remaining.
Final shootout amongst big favourites:
The real battle was being waged behind, though. The pace saw Mark Cavendish (Great Britain) and Matt Goss (Australia) drop out, thus removing two sprinters from the list of contenders. Another, Greipel, was dropped from the first chase group. In order to ensure that he and the others didn’t return, the speed was being ramped up by those in the move. Gerrans was particularly active, sacrificing his chances to build a buffer.
The Australian finally cracked on The Ridge climb, his work done. Nibali then surged, Evans went in pursuit and the lead group was seriously whittled down to those two, plus Visconti, Pozzato, Morenhout, Gilbert, Van Garderen, Wegman and Poels.
A stubborn Nibali then kicked once again, initially pushing on ahead alone, but then being joined by Sörensen (Denmark), Serpa, Visconti and Moerenhout. Gilbert, Evans, Van Garderen, Pozzato, Wegman, Poels and Brutt fell 22 seconds behind and looked to be slipping out of the picture, but were soon caught by over 40 others. This fresh impetus meant that the Nibali group was caught on the second climb of the penultimate lap.
Almost immediately, Leukemans attacked hard and was initially joined by team-mate Gilbert and Pozzato, then by Evans, Kolobnev and Niki Terpstra (Netherlands). The group was a quality one, but a slight lack of cooperation plus a determined chase behind saw 34 others bridge across with one lap to go.
Gilbert made his big move the last time up The Ridge, jumping clear on the steep section and powering away. He was chased by Kolobnev, Evans and Schleck, but managed to pull out a lead of 20 seconds. The pursuing trio were reinforced by Sörensen and Leukemans, the latter refusing to aid in the chase of his team-mate.
Evans and Paul Martens (Germany) then clipped away and got to within ten seconds of the leader, but a rapidly approaching chase group soaked up everything out front with three kilometres to go. Gilbert would say afterwards that a headwind cost him his chance to take gold.
Gusev and Brajkovic had a shot, then were joined by Terpstra. However with the remaining sprinters and their teams sensing opportunity, there was to be no denying a bunch gallop. Breschel looked good for the win with 100 metres to go, only to be denied by a very fast-finishing Hushovd. He looked far stronger than in the Tour de France, with his healed injuries and good form once again transforming him into one of the fastest and most versatile sprinters in the bunch.
Hushovd’s reward was the rainbow jersey, adding to the 1998 under 23 world championship gold he took in the time trial. Breschel went close, improving on his third-place finish of 2008, while Davis denied Pozzato the bronze.
Whether it was the lack of race radios or not, the general assessment afterwards was that it was a superb edition of the worlds, with plenty of attacking, aggressive riding across the disciplines.
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Elite world road race championships, Geelong, Australia:
1, Thor Hushovd (Norway) 262.7 kilometres in 6 hours 21 mins 49 secs
2, Matti Breschel (Denmark)
3, Allan Davis (Australia)
4, Filippo Pozzato (Italy)
5, Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium)
6, Oscar Freire (Spain)
7, Alexandr Kolobnev (Russia)
8, Assan Bazayev (Kazakhstan)
9, Yukiya Arashiro (Japan)
10, Romain Feillu (France)
11, Grega Bole (Slovenia)
12, Dmitry Fofonov (Kazakhstan)
13, Koos Moerenhout (Netherlands)
14, Fabian Wegmann (Germany)
15, Manuel Cardoso (Portugal)
16, Frank Schleck (Luxembourg)
17, Cadel Evans (Australia)
18, Philippe Gilbert (Belgium) all same time
19, Niki Terpstra (Netherlands)at 7 secs
20, Bjorn Leukemans (Belgium) same time
21 Vladimir Gusev (Russian Federation) at 13 secs
22, Janez Brajkovic (Slovenia)
23, Chris Sörensen (Denmark) both same time
24, Anders Lund (Denmark) at 15 secs
25, Paul Martens (Germany) same time
26, Yoann Offredo (France) at 2 mins 7 secs
27, Jonas Ljungblad (Sweden) at 2 mins 9 secs
28, Matija Kvasina (Croatia) at 2 mins 11 secs
29, Christian Knees (Germany)
30, Fumiyuki Beppu (Japan) both same time
31, Simon Spilak (Slovenia) at 2 mins 13 secs
32, Cyril Gautier (France)
33, Kanstantin Siutsou (Belarus)
34, Jose Rodolfo Serpa Perez (Colombia)
35, Juan José Haedo (Argentina)
36, Giovanni Visconti (Italy) all same time
37, Marzio Bruseghin (Italy) at 5 mins 11 secs
38, Luca Paolini (Italy)
39, Haimar Zubeldia Agirre (Spain) both same time
40, Vincenzo Nibali (Italy) at 7 mins 10 secs
41, Lars Boom (Netherlands) at 7 mins 22 secs
42, Wout Poels (Netherlands)
43, André Greipel (Germany)
44, Gorazd Stangelj (Slovenia)
45, Stuart O`Grady (Australia)
46, Radoslav Rogina (Croatia)
47, Karsten Kroon (Netherlands)
48, Jure Kocjan (Slovenia)
49, Pavel Brutt (Russian Federation)
50, Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland) all same time
51, Yauheni Hutarovich (Belarus) at 13 mins 53 secs
52, Denys Kostyuk (Ukraine)
53, Martin Velits (Slovakia)
54, Petr Bencik (Czech Republic)
55, Martin Elmiger (Switzerland)
56, Hernani Broco (Portugal)
57, Egor Silin (Russian Federation)
58, Marcel Sieberg (Germany)
59, Steve Morabito (Switzerland)
60, Bartosz Huzarski (Poland)
61, Eduard Vorganov (Russian Federation)
62, Koen De Kort (Netherlands)
63, Sylvain Chavanel (France)
64, Michal Golas (Poland)
65, Bernhard Eisel (Austria)
66, Peter Wrolich (Austria)
67, Oleksandr Sheydyk (Ukraine)
68, David Mc Cann (Ireland)
69, Alexander Kristoff (Norway)
70, Sébastien Hinault (France)
71, Bert Grabsch (Germany)
72, Yukihiro Doi (Japan)
73, Edward King (United States Of America)
74, Peter Velits (Slovakia)
75, Gustav Larsson (Sweden)
76, Lars Ytting Bak (Denmark)
77, Julian Dean (New Zealand)
78, Przemyslaw Niemiec (Poland)
79, Christian Vandevelde (United States Of America)
80, Danny Pate (United States Of America)
81, Tyler Farrar (United States Of America)
82, Danilo Hondo (Germany)
83, Anthony Geslin (France)
84, Tanel Kangert (Estonia)
85, Svein Tuft (Canada)
86, William Bonnet (France)
87, Leopold Konig (Czech Republic)
88, Alexsandr Dyachenko (Kazakhstan)
89, Ignatas Konovalovas (Lithuania)
90, José Mendes Pimenta Costa (Portugal)
91, Steven Kruijswijk (Netherlands)
92, Sebastian Langeveld (Netherlands)
93, Oleksandr Kvachuk (Ukraine)
94, Mathew Hayman (Australia)
95, Wesley Sulzberger (Australia)
96, Michael Rogers (Australia)
97, Nicolas Roche (Ireland) all same time
98, Laurent Didier (Luxembourg) at 21 mins 51 secs
99, Zolt Der (Serbia) at 22 mins 50 secs
DNF: Andrea Tonti (Italy)
DNF: Christian Meier (Canada)
DNF: Daryl Impey (South Africa)
DNF: Peter Sagan (Slovakia)
DNF: Jos Van Emden (Netherlands)
DNF: Dominic Klemme (Germany)
DNF: Edvald Boasson Hagen (Norway)
DNF: Luis Leon Sanchez Gil (Spain)
DNF: Ruben Plaza Molina (Spain)
DNF: Leif Hoste (Belgium)
DNF: Jan Bakelants (Belgium)
DNF: Simon Gerrans (Australia)
DNF: Lucas Sebastian Haedo (Argentina)
DNF: Maciej Bodnar (Poland)
DNF: Vladimir Karpets (Russian Federation)
DNF: Carlos Oyarzun Guinez (Chile)
DNF: Diego Alejandro Tamayo Martinez (Colombia)
DNF: David Millar (Great Britain)
DNF: Marcin Sapa (Poland)
DNF: Jackson Rodriguez (Venezuela)
DNF: Carlos Barredo Llamazales (Spain)
DNF: Yury Trofimov (Russian Federation)
DNF: Michael Albasini (Switzerland)
DNF: Tejay Van Garderen (United States Of America)
DNF: Jurgen Roelandts (Belgium)
DNF: Francesco Gavazzi (Italy)
DNF: Tony Martin (Germany)
DNF: Mario Aerts (Belgium)
DNF: Matteo Tosatto (Italy)
DNF: Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spain)
DNF: Matthew Brammeier (Ireland)
DNF: Grégory Rast (Switzerland)
DNF: Samuel José Rodrigues Caldeira (Portugal)
DNF: Juan Manuel Garate (Spain)
DNF: Andriy Grivko (Ukraine)
DNF: Matthew Harley Goss (Australia)
DNF: Hayden Roulston (New Zealand)
DNF: Kristijan Koren (Slovenia)
DNF: Artem Ovechkin (Russian Federation)
DNF: Michael Morkov (Denmark)
DNF: Murilo Antonio Fischer (Brazil)
DNF: Hrvoje Miholjevic (Croatia)
DNF: Imanol Erviti Ollo (Spain)
DNF: Kevin De Weert (Belgium)
DNF: Baden Cooke (Australia)
DNF: Mark Cavendish (Great Britain)
DNF: David Zabriskie (United States Of America)
DNF: Jeremy Hunt (Great Britain)
DNF: Francisco José Ventoso Alberdi (Spain)
DNF: Valentin Iglinskiy (Kazakhstan)
DNF: Sergey Renev (Kazakhstan)
DNF: Alexander Porsev (Russian Federation)
DNF: Ben Gastauer (Luxembourg)
DNF: Thomas Peterson (United States Of America)
DNF: Kalle Kriit (Estonia)
DNF: Adil Jelloul (Morocco)
DNF: Mohammed Said Elammoury (Morocco)
DNF: Daniel Oss (Italy)
DNF: Frederik Willems (Belgium)
DNF: Greg Henderson (New Zealand)
DNF: Abdelatil Saadoune (Morocco)
DNF: Matias Medici (Argentina)
DNF: Esad Hasanovic (Serbia)
DNF: Danilo Wyss (Switzerland)
DNF: Jason Mccartney (United States Of America)
DNF: Martin Kohler (Switzerland)
DNF: Jaroslaw Marycz (Poland)
DNF: Darren Lill (South Africa)
DNF: Yury Metlushenko (Ukraine)
DNF: Manuel Antonio Leal Cardoso (Portugal)
DNF: Jay Robert Thomson (South Africa)
DNF: Borut Bozic (Slovenia)
DNF: Dominique Rollin (Canada)
DNF: Alex Rasmussen (Denmark)
DNF: Craig Lewis (United States Of America)
DNF: Adnane Aarbia (Morocco)
DNF: Mouhcine Lahsaini (Morocco)
DNF: Tarik Chaoufi (Morocco)
DNF: Carlos José Ochoa (Venezuela)