Bursting through a mass of sprinters with 100 metres to go, Mark Cavendish delivered on his status as one of the top favourites to win the Elite world road race championships in Copenhagen this afternoon.
He was hemmed in as the sprint unfolded but squeezed through against the right hand barrier and found the gap he needed. Cavendish quickly moved ahead of the others, powering clear, although Australian rival and HTC Highroad team-mate Matt Goss came back at him and finished just half a wheel behind.
Andre Greipel (Germany) just edged out Fabian Cancellara (Switerland) for third, making it a podium comprised of current and past HTC Highroad riders.
Cavendish was more relieved than elated when he gave his first post-race reaction, his mood perhaps reflecting the huge pressure he had been under. He applauded the collective Great Britain performance in the race. “The guys worked so hard to collect points throughout the season to get eight riders here,” he said “You could see how well they rode, I am so proud of what they did.”
Coach Rod Ellingworth and others in British Cycling had long believed that Cavendish could win. “This has been a three year project for us,” he continued. “Ever since the course was announced we have been preparing for this.”
Asked about his big target for next year, the London 2012 Games, Cavendish confirmed that winning that title as world champion was a big target for him. “We will only have five at the Olympics but we will work hard to try to win and do the double,” he said, ambitiously.
The 26 year old was supported perfectly by his British team-mates throughout the 266 kilometre race, with the GB squad assuming the bulk of the responsibility for the day’s big breaks.
It also controlled the gains of a later move which went clear just before the start of the last lap. Thomas Voeckler attacked just before his team-mate and the-then solo leader Anthony Roux was caught, and was joined by Nicki Sorensen (Denmark) and the Belgian rider Klaas Lodewyck.
These were seventeen seconds clear at the bell, but David Millar and then his British team-mate Bradley Wiggins chased hard to reduce that advantage.
Johnny Hoogerland (Netherlands) then jumped across with approximately ten kilometres to go and gave the break a needed bit of pace. However, despite this and a last-gasp attack by Voeckler, Wiggins brought everything back together with six kilometres left.
From that point it was all about jostling for position. The Australians took over at the front for Goss, while Ian Stannard helped try to steer Cavendish into the right place. He appeared to be a little swamped in the final buildup for the sprint but worked his way through the mayhem, hit the front when it mattered and then thundered home as the 2011 world road race champion.
“A World title is something special and I'm going to wear the rainbow jersey with pride over the next year,” he smiled.
Goss was understandably disappointed, particularly as his speed in the last 100 metres showed that he could have won had he launched a second earlier. “I don't like being the bridesmaid!,” he said, ruefully. “I would much rather be wearing that jersey. I am disappointed not to be wearing it, but I am happy I have finished the season well.”
Cancellara galloped in just outside the medals, being edged out by Greipel. He performed strongly to be so close to three pure sprinters. Still, even though the course didn’t suit his characteristics as well as it did theirs, he said he wasn’t pleased at all with the outcome. “I have my ambitions,” he said. “I wanted to win, and this is hard to accept. I do not feel happy with fourth place.”
Another who was less than pleased was the Spanish rider Oscar Freire. He was aiming to make history and become the first rider ever to win four elite road race titles. He was badly positioned when the sprint began and came home ninth. “I was in good condition and it is annoying not to have seized this chance,” he said. “I felt fine, but I was not very well placed.”
Seven leaders make early running:
Starting at ten o’clock, the riders covered 22 kilometres of racing before the first passage over the finish line, and the start of seventeen laps of the fourteen kilometre course. An aggressive start had been predicted and this is how things turned out, with a stream of attacks early on leading to a three man break at the start of lap one.
Tomislav Danculovic (Croatia), Otavio Bulgarelli (Brazil) and Oleg Chuzhda (Ukraine) tried to build a good lead but the move was caught. Chuzhda had enough to go clear with six others and by the end of that first lap, Anthony Roux (France) led Chuzhda, Tanel Kangert (Estonia), Christian Poos (Luxembourg), Maxim Iglinskiy (Kazakhstan), Robert Kiserlovski (Croatia) and Pablo Lastras Garcia (Spain) over the line. Ivan Mauricio Casas Buitrago (Colombia) and Otavio Bulgarelli (Brazil) were 20 seconds back, with the peloton 59 seconds down.
Two laps later, the seven leaders had extended their lead over the two chasers to three minutes 32 seconds. Hossein Askari (Iran) and Mohamed Said El Ammoury (Morocco) were five minutes 15 seconds further back and trying to get across to the other two, while the bunch was seven minutes 43 seconds back. By the end of lap four, the advantage over each had continued to grow even further and the peloton was a full eight minutes and five seconds behind.
The British team realised it was time to up the pace somewhat and combined with the German riders to start turning things around. Askari and El Ammoury were soon caught, while Casas Buitrago and Bulgarelli succumbed heading around lap six.
Poos was slightly adrift at the end of lap ten, 162 kilometres after the start. A splinter group of five riders had clipped away and was trying to bridge across to the leaders. This quintet comprised Paris-Roubaix winner Johan Van Summeren (Belgium), Luca Paoloni (Italy), Simon Clarke (Australia), Olivier Kaisen (Belgium), and France’s Yoann Offredo, and had closed to three minutes 25 seconds, 45 seconds faster than the peloton.
The junction was made during lap twelve, making it eleven out front. However the bunch was just one minute four seconds back at the 190 kilometre point, five laps and seventy kilometres from the line, and the break was on shaky ground. It would rally to build a bigger lead, though, despite a major surge in pace in the peloton when a large crash delayed some of the big names.
2010 rainbow jersey winner loses chance:
Amongst those that lap thirteen proved unlucky for were defending champion Thor Hushovd (Norway), Tony Martin (Germany), Greg Henderson (New Zealand), Lucas Sebastian Haedo (Argentina), Bernhard Eisel (Austria), Chris Anker Sorensen (Denmark), Samuel Dumoulin (France), Rigoberto Uran (Colombia), Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium), Kanstantsin Siutsou (Belarussia) and Sven Tuft (Canada).
The time checks brought bad news for those chasers. The bunch was one minute 35 seconds behind the break at the line, but the Hushovd group was a further 59 seconds behind and slipping. They chased but with many teams dragging things along out front, the gaps grew and grew.
The mood was very different to the waiting game played before, and several big names threw down the gauntlet. Michael Albasini (Switzerland) put in a big move and was joined by several others including Michael Rogers (Australia), Nick Nuyens and Bjorn Leukemans (Belgium), Rui Costa (Portugal), Thomas Lovkvist (Sweden) and Dan Martin (Ireland). While these were brought back several kilometres later, the crash and subsequent injection in pace was a disaster for those stranded behind.
By the end of lap 14, they’d drifted to one minute 43 seconds behind the bunch and two minutes 45 off the chase; one lap later, it was over four minutes from the front of the race to the Hushovd group. His chances of successfully defending his jersey were in tatters.
Up front, things were continuing to progress in a gripping way. Roux attacked alone and was fourteen seconds clear at the line, Kangert and Van Summeren had dropped back, and Lars Bak (Denmark) had put in a big attack to get to within 28 seconds of the leader. The Dane was hurtling along impressively and held a 23 seconds lead over the peloton heading onto that sixteenth lap. His move sent the home fans into a frenzy, although he couldn’t quite get across before being gobbled up.
A crucial battle for positions:
The riders were getting closer and closer to the finish and, fearing the sprinters, some of the rouleurs had a go. The expected Philippe Gilbert attack didn’t materialise but France’s Thomas Voeckler decided he wasn’t waiting around, accelerating clear just before Roux was reeled in. He was joined by Nicki Sorensen (Denmark) and the Belgian rider Klaas Lodewyck and these opened a decent gap.
David Millar and Bradley Wiggins dragged the bunch along to try to limit the leaders’ gains but coming to the bell, the trio had succeeded in opening up a seventeen second lead. It looked dangerous for the Britons.
Lodewyck’s presence up front appeared a possible platform for Philippe Gilbert to try to jump across, but the Belgian captain still didn’t move. Instead, heading up the climb on the final lap, Johnny Hoogerland attacked for the Dutch team and quickly sped across the gap to the leaders. Wiggins was doing a lot of driving behind to try to keep the British hopes alive.
With 8.8 kilometres to go, Hoogerland surged on a slight drag and was followed by Voeckler. The break was only about five seconds clear at that point and Voeckler tried to push things on. He jumped alone just before the others were caught, but was himself reeled in almost immediately.
Just six kilometres remained at that point and Wiggins continued to drive it. He finally cracked with four kilometres to go, prompting the Australians to come through with Goss on the back of their line. Cavendish was being jostled and briefly looked isolated, but Ian Stannard got into position and to help out.
The other sprinters also tried to get into position, with the Americans helping Farrar more closer to the front and the Italians riding for Daniele Bennati. Heading around the final corner, things looked chaotic; Cavendish had been separated from Stannard, while several other favourites appeared out of position. Their chances would depend on how they handled the uphill sprint, which was all about timing.
Heinrich Haussler put in a big surge coming up the drag towards the finish, giving a good lead out before Goss made his effort. Cavendish initially seemed a little out of the picture but then appeared on the right hand side, edging past against the barriers and hitting the front. Crucially, Goss paused for a split second, losing ground. He came back at the Briton but was half a wheel behind crossing the line. Further back, Cancellara and Andre Greipel (Germany) fought for the bronze medal, with the latter getting it by millimetres.
For Cavendish and Britain, it was a major triumph. 46 years after Tommy Simpson took the rainbow jersey, it once again went to a rider from that country. When added to Cavendish’s twenty Tour de France stages, his Maillot Vert from this year and his Milan-Sanremo title, it marks him out as a big star in the sport.
Yet, as former British team manager John Herety said during an analysis in the Eurosport studios, the rider was almost passed over in his teens by the national cycling system.
“He never met any of the weight criteria or fitness indexes that the powers that be had laid out for him,” he explained. “They were going to let him go, but he was the only guy who we interviewed who won 15 races. Fortunately we kept to our senses and kept him on the programme.”
Former T-Mobile team-mate Roger Hammond was also present in the studios and said there was another occasion when people were less than impressed. “When he first turned pro, there was a crisis meeting for young Cavendish,” he said. “He was so overweight and so unfit before the start of the season. The team trainer stood up and said ‘Mark, you wont be able to finish a race, let alone win a race.’ However he went and won two, so it shows what he can do when he puts his mind to something.”