September 29/07 6:03 am - Road World Championships: Women & U23 Men's RR Photos, Report & Full results

Posted by Editor on 09/29/07
 

Road World Championships Stuttgart, Germany

Coverage sponsored by Norco

Photos

Women

U23 Men

Today was the first day of road racing, with both the Elite Women and Under-23 Men tackling the extremely long and difficult 19.1 kilometre circuit. Italy took a surprise win in the women's race when Marta Bastianelli snuck away, and a rapidly dwindling peloton was slow in reacting, while one of the pre-race men's favourites, Peter Velits of Slovakia, followed up his win last week at the French Grand Prix de Fourmies in a field sprint finish. Canadians were active in both races, with Alex Wrubleski delivering Canada's best women's result in a decade with a ninth place, and Christian Meier figuring in a breakaway with less than 50 kilometres to go.

Women

The women's seven lap race began slowly, with the riders facing clear but cold conditions, plus wet and slippery roads. As the sun warmed both the riders and the ground, the racing became more aggressive. Italy was the dominant team all race, first sending off Monia Baccaille on lap three. Attrition began to shrink the numbers at the halfway mark, which accelerated when a second Italian took a flyer on the fifth lap.

Tatiana Guderzo was assisted in her attack by the collapse of a barrier at the front of the peloton, which took down or delayed a number of riders. One of the large inflated arches also collapsed, and was removed from the road less than five minutes before the leaders came through.

At the start of lap six, Guderzo was still 12 seconds ahead of the peloton, but Amber Neben (USA) took up the chase, marked by yet another Italian - Noemi Cantele. This pair went right by Guderzo, with Neben doing the lion's share of the work. Back in the peloton, Germany finally went to the front, with time trial champion Hanka Kupfernagel doing a strong pull to bring everything back together for the start of the final lap.

Defending champion Marianne Vos (Netherlands) and Cantele attacked on the steep climb in the first lap, with Judith Arndt (Germany) reacting immediately. This set the stage for Bastianelli's winning counterattack.

As the rest of the field hesitated, the 20 year old Italian went 25 seconds clear. When the attacks began out of the chase group, Canada's Erinne Willock made a strong counter to an attack by Svetlana Bubnekova (Russia), and gained 8 seconds. Willock managed to hold onto second until the final kilometre, when the remaining 15 riders in the chase group caught her. Vos took the sprint for silver, with another Italian, Giorgia Bronzini, taking the bronze.

Wrubleski crashed in the final lap, taking down Arndt with her, but was able to chase back up to the main group. "My race started slow; I didn't know how well I was going in the first few laps, but I kept catching lots of riders on the climbs. On the last lap I tried to stay at the front, and I was feeling good, but I then had a crash in a sketchy corner and had to chase back up."

Willock was pleased with her race, despite getting caught in sight of the 1K to go banner. "It split up and then regrouped, split and regrouped, and on a flat tailwind section I countered a move by Bubnekova. I had a good gap to start, but the Dutch were chasing for Vos, and they came back to me. You've got to try to win."

Willock also said that her knee - for which she had surgery over the winter - "is 95% there now. It's been a long recovery, but everything is going good now."

U23 Men

The men's nine lap, 171.9 kilometre event saw an immediate attack by South African Jacques Janse van Rensburg. Shortly into the second lap he was joined by Andreas Frisch (Denmark) and Esad Hasanovic (Serbia). This trio quickly went five minutes clear of a largely disinterested peloton.

In the fourth lap the chasers began to up the pace, and a few attacks went off the front. Hasanovic was dropped by the other two on this lap, and the gap shrank to 3:30. By the end of the fifth lap it was down to 40 seconds, and the break was all but over - and the race was up over the 102 kilometre mark.

This set the stage for a counterattack, it was Meier trying his hand, with Stefano Pirazzi (Italy) and Ignatas Konovalovas (Lithuana). The group started out well together, going over 35 seconds clear. The Russians were sending off multiple riders in an effort to bridge, but all they succeeded in doing was closing down the gap and, early in the eighth lap Meier and his companions were caught.

Velits and time trial winner Lars Boom (Netherlands) launched what looked like to be a decisive move at Meier was brought back. This front group grew to nine riders, but was too dangerous, and the field turned itself inside trying to bridge up, which nearly 60 riders did with five kilometres to go in the race.

In the sprint out of the final corner with 250 metres to go, it was a drag race. Tom Leezer (Netherlands) started the action, but was literally swarmed by the pack. Velits went up the left side, along the fencing, while Wesley Sulzberger jumped to the right. First year U23 rider Jonathan Belius (Great Britain) headed for the middle, but was slowed by Leezer and had to swing wide to the right., costing him valuable distance and time.

In the end, Velits was just that much stronger on the uphill run to the finish line, but barely had time to lift his arms in the air before he crossed the line.

"I went in the break with the intention of some other riders to come up to join us and establishing a group which could stay away," explained Meier. "We [the team] discussed it, and we knew it was going to be a gamble. We took the gamble and it didn't work. But if you want to win, you gotta try."

Just behind the top three a crash took place in the field, almost literally on the line. It appeared that for some reason a French rider went sideways and off his bike, knocking a Swiss rider into the barriers, with a Norwegian piling into them from behind.