Road Worlds: Elite Men RR report and photos
Rui da Costa Wears Portugal's First Rainbow Jersey
Rain, torrential at times, made the 270 kilometre Elite men's road race one of attrition. Italy did almost everything right to win the big prize at home but, in the end, had the palpable disappointment of fourth place for national hero and Giro champion Vincenzo Nibali. Spain also had disappointment, having to settle for second and third by Joaquin Rodriguez and Alejandro Valverde, after their perfectly timed effort was foiled by Portugal's Rui da Costa, who outkicked Rodriguez at the line.
Canada had two entries - Christian Meier and Francois (Frank) Parisien. Neither finished, with Meier a victim of crashes and slow service after a flat, while Parisien had an impressive ride - staying among the leaders until near the end of the penultimate lap, when he finally cracked under the high pace on the climbs. [Note: We have an interview with Frank Parisien]
The race started near the coast, in Lucca to the west of Florence, and took a 1o7 kilometre route into the 16 kilometre circuit, which was covered ten times.
The break consisted of Jan Barta (Czech Republic), Bartosz Huzarski (Poland), Matthias Brandle (Austria), Yonder Godoy (Venezuela), and Rafaa Chtioui (Tunisia). It reached a maximum time gap of 7:38 during the early run in to Florence, where the peloton was largely controlled by Great Britain.
Once onto the road circuit Italy began to control the show, and the field slowly decimated. From Great Britain, both Cavendish and Wiggins were distanced early and retired. Chris Froome retired at the end of lap four, leaving only Geraint Thomas to fly the British flag. He lasted one more lap before retiring.
Five laps to go: Huzarski and Barta remain from the break, continuing to display a good cooperative work ethic, assisted from their riding together on trade team Net App-Endura. Under constant direction from Team Manager Paolo Bettini, Italy sat up to allow the break to reform momentarily, and opened the gap up again to 3:20 after having it reduced to 1:33 in the previous lap. Over the sixth ascent of Fiesole, the direction from Bettini was to turn the pressure back on, and once again the remaining peloton formed a single file behind the Italian blue train. At this point only around 73 riders remained in the race.
As one tweet said, 'Finally, after 5-6 hours, an attack!' German Marcus Burghardt attacked on the sixth time up Salviati, resulting in stretching the field even more.
At the top of Fiesole the gap reduced to 1:15. Cyril Gautier and Giovanni Visconti formed a good combination up Fiesole, and crested Salviati only 42 second behind the lead pair of Huzarski and Barta, with the peloton at 1:27.
Rodriguez got a gap on the descent, after Nibali chose caution, however, the Italian pulled da Costa and Valverde back to the leader on Via Salviati. But that seemed to be it the Giro winner, and when Rodriguez went again on the remaining short climb, he could not respond.
da Costa then made a decisive attack as Valverde concentrated on Nibali, and quickly bridged up to Rodriguez. From that point it was cat and mouse, with the Portuguese rider sitting on until 200 metres to go, when he jumped to the left and held off Rodriguez by less than a wheel.
"This was always a big dream of mine," said da Costa, "since I was a child, to wear this jersey. Today I realised a dream, and in a way won the lottery. This jersey means a great deal to me and I wanted it more than anything else in my career. I think I still can't believe that I am the World Champion but I will do everything I can to honour this jersey."
Report by Monique Hanley and Rob Jones
Previous races
Day 1 Men and Women TTT
Day 2 Junior Women/U23 Men ITT
Day 3 Junior Men/Elite Women ITT
Day 4 Elite Men ITT
Day 5 Junior Women/U23 Men RR
Day 6 Junior Men/Elite Women RR
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