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UCI 2010 World Road Championships
Sept 29 - Oct 3 | Photos courtesy of PA Images | Event Website | Home Page
Day 3 - October 1st - Under 23 World Road Championship
Michael Matthews from Australia is the 2010 World Under 23 Road Race Champion after the 45 or so riders left after 100 miles (159km) under an Australian sun thundered into the finish in Geelong. Matthews finished well clear of John Degenkolb (Germany) and Taylor Phinney (USA)/Guillaume Boivin (Canada) who filled the minor placings. Great Britain’s Luke Rowe was 11th.
Home win -- Australian Michael Matthews wins the Under 23 World title whilst the battle for the minor placings rages behind. Photo: Rob Griffith/AP/Press Association Images.
The Race
Held on the Friday after the Time Trials, the Under 23 Championship saw 122 of the World’s best under 23 riders line up in Geelong (Australia) to do battle over what has been described as a tough 10 mile course with long steep climbs expected to help split the race. One rider who was keen to get going was USA’s Ben King who attacked early on and the American champion made hay while the sun shone and continued to build up a good lead before a serious chase was fired off to bring him back.
On home soil, the Australians were keen to show they meant business too and another Ben King, this time from Australia, went off in pursuit of his trade teammate. The two teammates though never came together and instead, a chase group soon formed when the Aussie Ben King was joined by Andrei Krasilnikau (Belarus) and King Lok Cheung (Hong Kong). Great Britain’s Alex Dowsett then joined the chasers as did Moreno Moser of Italy and the Italian nephew of the great Francesco Moser wasn’t hanging about.
Moser turned up the heat on the rest, dropping first the Aussie Ben King along with Andrei Krasilnikau (Belarus) and King Lok Cheung (Hong Kong) and then after a while, Dowsett too had to give best to the Italian. While the action at the front was hotting up, it was also pretty hot at the back for many of the riders who soon found themsevles cooked under the Australian sun and being dropped from an ever shrinking peloton.
Moser soon caught the American King but with the peloton only less than half a minute behind, the move looked doomed and first King was caught and then Moser too had to give best to the peloton which had halved in size as the race entered the final few laps. The French were certainly keen to get a move going and no one more so than Tony Gallopin who had been very active at the front of the race. Into the final lap, the speed of the race went through the roof and there were as many riders going out the back on the climb as there were off the front.
While Frenchman Gallopin gave it full gas out front alone to try and stay clear of the peloton at full speed, the attacks to chase him down were being launched on both sides of the road. There was a sense of desperation in the field now and that only got worse when a rider from Portugal, Nélson Oliveira got clear to chase the Gallopin and sitting on the wheel of the Portuguese rider was yet another Frenchman. The whole race was held in a bubble of no more than 15 seconds, leader Gallopin, two chasers and then the peloton where with no one team dominant, the chase was hardly what you could call organised.
No matter though because the peloton soon caught the chasers and then the Gallopin ran out of legs with only two kilometres to go - the title was now going to be decided in a bunch kick! The Belgians, at least three in number, massed at the front with the Spanish team line astern behind them but the speed of the finish soon saw them swamped. A crash at the back didn’t change anything at the front and with the Italians taking over the lead out, ominously an Australian jersey could be seen coming down the outside and slotting in near the front as the race was now entering the final few hundred metres.
As riders from Germany and France went side by side, Phinney too in the mix, the Australian Matthews made his move and from the front, it all looked very close but a replay later of the overhead showed just what speed the Australian had as he eclipsed his rivals, crossing the line lengths clear of the second placed rider, John Degenkolb of Germany. On being the first Australian in the Under 23 road race to win the rainbow jersey he said “I’m speechless, I don’t know what to say. I don’t know if it will ever sink in, it's just a dream come true and dreams don’t usually come true, it's unbelievable.”
“It was amazing. I couldn’t have done it without all my team and all the fans out there yelling for me... It was amazing to win on my home soil, in front of my home crowd with everyone cheering for me. I timed my sprint perfectly and made sure these guys ( fellow medallists) weren’t around me...and it was amazing.”
“That look to the left (in the sprint) was, oh, I couldn’t believe it really, I wasn’t sure if it was actually real or (if) I was dreaming. I was going to flick myself or pinch myself or something but it was real and it’s unbelievable. ”
On his teammates in the Australian team, he said “It’s major respect, I couldn’t have done it without them. They were with me the whole time, on the front run for me, being around me the whole time, making sure I had drinks, water, food, always asking me how I was... I couldn’t have done it without them. There was a lot of pressure on me but it worked on my side so everyone felt like they had to beat me instead of me beat them. I started off really well and finished better, so I can’t really say any more.”
Under 23 Men Road Race Result
1. Michael Matthews (Australia) 4:01:23
2. John Degenkolb (Germany)
3. Taylor Phinney (USA) =
3. Guillaume Boivin (Canada) =
5. Arnaud Demare (France)
6. Sonny Colbrelli (Italy)
7. Laurens De Vreese (Belgium)
8. Sebastian Lander (Denmark)
9. Juan Jose Lobato Del Valle (Spain)
10. Viacheslav Kuznetsov (Russian Federation)
11. Luke Rowe (Great Britain)
12. Siarhei Papok (Belarus)
13. Blaz Jarc (Slovenia)
14. Ramunas Navardauskas (Lithuania)
15. Stefano Agostini (Italy)
16. David Boily (Canada)
17. Sylwester Janiszewski (Poland)
18. Mikel Landa Meana (Spain)
19. Yonathan Monsalve (Venezuela)
20. Egidijus Juodvalkis (Lithuania)
56. Jonnny McEvoy, Great Britain @1.04
DNF
Alex Dowsett
Andrew Fenn
