Two gold, two silver and two bronze medals for Britons, ahead of Australia and France
Mark Cavendish not only pedaled to a superb gold in the men's road race on Sunday afternoon, but also ensured that Great Britain tops the medal ranking at the Copenhagen World Championships. Their six medals is one more than Australia and twice as many as France in third place.
The Britons have two gold medals thanks to Cavendish and Lucy Garner, who won the junior women's road race. They also picked up two silver medals; one through Bradley Wiggins in the men's time trial and one through Elinor Barker in the junior women's time trial. They equally had two bronze medals: Climber Emma Pooley unexpectedly picked one up in a flat road race of the women and Andrew Fenn delivered behind the French guys in the U23 road race.
Australia had almost the same medal count, but received only one silver. Matthew Goss was beaten by Cavendish in the men's road race. The golds came in the junior women's time trial (Jessica Allen) and in the U23 time trial (Luke Durbridge). The third places were also in the U23 time trial (Michael Hepburn) and in the junior men's time trial (David Edwards).
Third placed France has a total of three medals. One gold and one silver came in the U23 road race (Arnaud Demare and Adrien Petit). Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier cooked one gold up in the junior men's road race.
Germany managed five medals, three of them in the bronze color (André Greipel in the men's road race, Ina-Yoko Teutenberg in the women's road race and Mieke Kröger in the junior women's time trial). Judith Arndt and Tony Martin won the women and men's time trial, respectively.
Host nation Denmark did well to get one gold (Mads Wurtz Schmidt, junior men's time trial), one silver (Rasmus Christian Quaade, U23 time trial) and one bronze (Christina Siggaard, junior women road race).
Italy had hoped for more than just one gold medal (Giorgia Bronzini, women's road race) and Belgium had held its breath for a gold by Philippe Gilbert. Instead, they had to settle for two silvers.
Switzerland is last in the standings, with Fabian Cancellara's bronze medal in the men's time trial. The power house had two chances to make the medal situation better for his country. His near-crash in the time trial may well have cost him silver. And in the road race, he was only beaten by Greipel in a photo finish. The sprint-experienced Greipel timed his bike push to perfection against a tiring Cancellara.
Total medal count
country g s b total
Great Britain 2 2 2 - 6
Australia 2 1 2 - 5
France 2 1 0 - 3
Germany 2 0 3 - 5
Denmark 1 1 1 - 3
Italy 1 0 0 - 1
Belgium 0 2 0 - 2
New Zealand 0 1 1 - 2
Netherlands 0 1 1 - 2
Switzerland 0 0 1 - 1