Apart from the impressive efforts put forth by Philippe Gilbert and Cadel Evans and Thor Hushovd's win in Sunday's World Championships in Geelong, Niki Terpstra's final, all or nothing, effort to dupe the sprinters was one of the more memorable moments of an unforgettable finale.
"I thought: all or nothing," said Terpstra to De Telegraaf following his Hail Mary effort. "It was a bit of an against all odds thing, but if I had dropped back, I had no chance. I was counting down - 300 meters, 250 meters, and then they passed me at high speed."
"It was a big effort to go in the last kilometer," said this year's Dutch National Champion."
Terpstra wasn't too disappointed in his effort though, and as a World Championship rookie, the current Milram rider was pleased with his efforts overall.
"It was my first World Championships, so I enjoyed it. I rode the Vuelta alright, so I did have a bit of hope that I could do something on this course filled with world class riders."
In arguably the crucial moment of the race, when Philippe Gilbert uncorked a massive attack on the day's second to last climb, Terpstra admits that there was little he could do to match the raging Belgian.
"Gilbert went too fast for me, but I managed to get onto Evans's wheel, and suddenly, I was at the forefront of a great group of leaders."
Indeed, Terpstra had managed to position himself in a superstar group that included Filippo Pozzato, Cadel Evans, Bjorn Leukemans, and Alexandr Kolobnev. The groups reshuffled, and Terpstra didn't make the next move, but Terpstra wasn't done. Making the first move of stars had been mildly surprising, but his ride inside the final two kilometers was breathtaking.
After the group of Evans and Martens came back, Slovenia's Janez Brajkovic and Russia's Vladimir Gusev attacked strongly to create another move. Moments later, with 1.7k to go, Terpstra was back at the head of affairs - he powered up the left side of the road and right by the two aggressors. They managed to get on to Terpstra's wheel, and the group remained together until the kilometer to go banner. Inside of one kilometer to go, Terpstra went again. The Dutch Champion rode his two companions off his wheel and rocketed to a notable gap as the meters kept ticking down.
Terpstra did not look to be struggling and continued powering forward with Denmark chasing desperately to bring Terpstra back into the fold and to set up Matti Breschel. Terpstra held and held, but with about 200 meters to go, his effort was over, and the sprint opened up in earnest.
"I felt good, but I had no expected to be going that well."
Patrick Lefevere must be feeling better and better about his new acquisition for 2011. The powerful Dutchman has grown tremendously in 2010 and looks set to start 2011 not just in his former guise as an aggressive rider, but an aggressive rider with the legs to win big bike races.