September 27/09 12:10 pm - Road World Championships: Men's RR report, PHOTOS and full results

Posted by Editoress on 09/27/09
 

Report and full results from today's men's road race in Mendrisio Switzerland

Coverage of the 2009 World Championships made possible with the support of Shimano

Photos

Michael Barry finished off a strong week of Canadian results at the Road World Championships with an impressive 18th place in the elite men's 262 kilometre road race.  Barry finished two minutes and 44 seconds behind the winner, Cadel Evans (Australia).  Alexandr Kolobnev (Russia) out sprinted Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver (Spain) for the silver medal.  Neither Svein Tuft nor Ryder Hesjedal finished the race.

Barry, who has finished as high as seventh in previous world championships, was consistently near the front of the race, but could not manage to respond to attacks in the final 30 kilometres that whittled the field down to less than half a dozen riders, from which Evans made his winning move.

"Obviously, I would have liked to be higher, but I'm pretty happy with my ride," commented Barry.  "I haven't done any longer one day races like this recently, so I didn't know what to expect.  With two laps to go, I was too far back in the bunch went it went really hard up the climb, so I couldn't work my way up to the leaders.  But overall, I raced well, and a top-20 on this course is an accomplishment."

The 19 lap race began with the obligatory breakaway in the second lap.  Six riders started the break - Matija Kvasina (Croatia), Peter Kusztor (Hungary), Jan Barta (Czech Republic), Yukiya Arashiro (Japan), Christoph Sokoll (Austria) and Andre Greipel (Germany) - and were joined on the fourth lap by four more:  Gorazd Stangelj (Slovenia), Mauricio Ardila (Colombia), Olegs Melehs (Latvia) and Volodymyr Zagorodny (Ukraine).  They rapidly pulled away from the disinterested peloton, going to a ten minute advantage by the start of the eighth lap.

This was too much, and the peloton, led mainly by the Italians initially, finally began to race.  By lap 11 the gap was down near six minutes, and the peloton was shrinking just as rapidly.  Barry and Tuft were still sitting in the bunch, but Hesjedal was gone for good.

"I was hoping for better legs today that's for sure," he said afterwards.  "I felt off from the very start and that's not the best way to get through what's shaping up to be a 7 hour race at this level!"

"I am not surprised, though.  I could feel the effects of a long season that saw me in top shape in January starting to catch up with me last week. I haven't experienced  a bad period all year so I am very happy to get to this point. I was focused on having a good race.  I did all I could to try and preserve my condition from the middle of the Vuelta but it looks like the season has finished for me halfway through this World Championship."

"It was a extremely difficult course and I was feeling bad from the beginning, and to continue didn't make sense. I am disappointed but looking at the positive side of a successful season, and this is the reality and hard part of sport at this level. I want to thank my Team Canada teammates, the entire staff and all the fans for the great support this year!"

A lap later, and attacks were starting to be launched off the front of the peloton, as the gap dropped below five minutes.  A large group of chasers formed late in lap 13 and started to close on the leaders, who were getting quite ragged.  This chase group didn't contain Evans, so Australia went to the front of the peloton, and by lap 16, with a little over 50 kilometres to go, the chase group caught the leaders, with the peloton seemingly about to rejoin them.  However, the Australians backed off and the gap began to grow again to two minutes, as the Belgians - with Tom Boonen in the front group - rode an easy tempo at the front of the main field.

On lap 18, with less than two laps to go, the Spanish and French finally went to the front of the peloton, and quickly brought the gap back down to under a minute, with everything coming back together late in the lap.  Immediate counterattacks were launched, with a core group of 30 forming, including the top names:  Evans, Oscar Freire (Spain), Alejandro Valverde (Spain), Damiano Cunego (Italy), Alexandre Vinokourov (Kazakhstan), Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland), Kolobnev, Rodriguez, Olympic champion Samuel Sanchez, Philippe Gilbert (Belgium), Simon Gerrans (Australia), Ivan Basso (Italy) and Michael Barry.

Barry was at a big disadvantage, having burned a lot of energy earlier in the race.  "With the bigger teams having nine riders, or even six, they can use up their domestiques early in the race and have their main guys fresher later in the race.  I didn't have that option, so I had to work harder to stay near the front, and I had to work my way up through the peloton with two to go, when it was splitting.  It was kind of frustrating."

On the last lap, the attacks didn't stop, with Vinokourov launching the first at the base of the initial climb.  Karsten Kroon (Netherlands) and Kolobnev were the first to bridge, but then Cancellara launched a massive effort, taking across Sanchez, Valverde, Gilbert, Freire, Rodriguez, Evans and a few more.  Cancellara kept the pace up on the descent and the flats, shedding all but Evans, Kolobnev and Cunego.  When he backed off slightly at the base of the final climb, Evans immediately attacked, and everyone hesitated.  Over the top, the Australian had 12 seconds lead, and it was all downhill to the finish, making him the first Australian man to win the road title, and in the year leading up to the Worlds in Melbourne, Australian.

As UCI President Pat McQuaid said afterwards:  "It couldn't have been a more prefect race."

Race Notes

- This is actually Evans' first world title.  As a mountain biker he had a number of Worlds podiums, but never the title.  It was also Evans' first major one day victory, and his finish annoyed most (if not all) of the photographers, who were looking for the traditional victory celebration with arms in the air.

Instead, the Australian came bearing down on the finish line like he was in a time trial, even though he had a 27 second lead.  Then he abruptly sat up, blew a kiss to the left, one to the right and clasped a hand to his chest (where his wedding band was on a chain).