With three and a half kilometres left to go in the final lap of the World Championship road race, the TV pictures that the UCI were broadcasting to the world cut out, leaving what had been a thrilling contest completely in limbo for millions following around the world. It looked to have been the first thing that went wrong during the World Championships, but actually it just added to the drama of a race which had burst into life during the last 80 kilometres into the contest that so many had hoped for.
All those watching had to wait for the first rider to emerge, past the flurry of waving security riders and official cars, and after what had seemed like an age, we saw a Danish rider being consumed by a group that had been shredded down to just 25 riders from the 196 that started, leading to a big sprint to take the prize in Bergen.
It was taken by Peter Sagan, winning for World Championships road race for the third time in a row, and thus confirming what most onlookers already knew; That the Slovakian is one of the great cyclists of the age, and that we are privileged to be able to follow his every move. He inflicted what must have been a painful defeat upon Alexander Kristoff, the European Champion who came within a wheel length of becoming champion in front of his home crowds, and the two had shown such speed that they managed to gap Michael Matthews, who ended a fine year with the Bronze medal.
This was a race that burst into life during its later stages. The first 150 kilometres had been dominated by a single breakway, with ), Conor Dunne (Ireland), Sean McKenna (Ireland), Elchin Asadov (Azerbaijan), Eugert Zhupa (Albania), Willem Jakobus Smit (South Africa), Alexey Vermeulen (USA), Matti Manninen (Finland), Kim Magnusson (Sweden), Andrey Amador (Costa Rica) and Salaheddine Mraouni (Morocco) managing to get away early and being given plenty of rein until Julien Vermote, the outstanding rider of the first half of the race, brought them back to within four minutes before he suffered a crash on the very tight hairpin that led the riders onto the bridge.
With 6 laps to go, the Russian Maxim Belkov decided to try and bridge to the break, passing Elchin Asadov and Eugert Zhupa, who had been dropped by what was a strong pace from the leaders upfront who had worked very well together.
They would soon be caught, however, with Smith the last survived from the escape as Vermote and co absorbed the break before heading down to the fifth last lap. After his crash, the Belgian got off the bike, having earned a great deal of credit for saving the legs of so many of his team.
The attacks came immediately. Warren Barguil managed to9 line the peloton ought before Marco Haller of Austria counter-attacked and then this sparked Tim Wellens into action, with the Belgian chasing him down and then taking Alessandro De Marchi, Odd Christian Eiking, Jack Haig, David de la Cruz, Jarlinson Pantano and Lars Boom to form the day’s second breakaway.
It was a seriously talented group that wasted no time working together, and it wasn’t long before the chase was on in the peloton, with France the biggest nation that missed the move.
With three laps to go they had 43 seconds over the bunch, where Poland’s Maciej Bodnar and Maciej Paterski were moving up to keep Michal Kwiatkowski in check at the head of affairs. More riders were dropped as Nils Politt (Germany) tried to bridge across, although he was swept up as the main field managed to bring the escape to within 20 seconds.
Tom Dumoulin, so prominent at the forefront of this World Championships, launched a serious attack on the pneumatise climb of Salmon Hill, and he forced a split in the peloton which was now down to 60 riders. Having been quiet so far, Kazhkstan’s Alexey Lutsenko tried to get off the front but was reeled on the harbourside.
It was set to be the final climb of Salmon Hill that would decide matters and the attacks came thick and fast. Before the climb proper had started, Sebastian Langeveld and Paul Martens both launched attacks but they were reeled in by Tiesj Benoot and then Cyril Gautier, who launched Tony Gallopin to attack for France.
He was reeled in by the acceleration of Christopher Juul Jensen, which stretched the peloton, with Van Avermaet, Dumoulin, Alaphilippe and Gilbert some of the first to follow. Then came the key moment, with the previously unseen Julian Alaphilippe launching his bid for glory, a huge acceleration that managed to distance the rest of the field, with Gianni Moscon the only one who was able to follow. He caught the Frenchman at the top of the hill and the pair quickly set about working together effectively, building a gap of 10 seconds on the very technical descent.
A 15-man group formed behind, but the chase was dangerously incoherent and Vasil Kiryienka and Lukas Postlberger took it upon themselves to chase down the front pairing. On the cobbled stretch that drags uphill, Alaphilippe went for glory, dropping Moscon, whilst a group of about 16 was desperately trying to get back on.
Then, the cameras cut out, and we were all left wondering until we saw a hurtling bunch consume a long Danish attacker, and then the sprint for home started. Kristoff would launch first, and stay intron – everywhere until the moment it counted.
