191 kilometres of racing in Bergen ended with a thrilling two-man sprint as France’s Benoit Cosnefroy claimed victory beat Germany’s Lennard Kämna to the line to take the men’s U23 road race at the 2017 World Championships, with a group of 48 snapping on their heels.
It was a brilliant end to what had been a frantic race, providing an appetising preview of what might come over the weekend with the junior men’s, and elite races both still to come, with the Gold and Silver medallists playing a dangerous game of tactical cat and mouse, but managing to exert enough power to make it to the finish again, where the Frenchman proved the quicker.
The race had been aggressively raced from the very beginning, with Jose Fernandes (Portugal), Vasili Strokau (Belarus), Gustav Hoog (Sweden), Awet Habtom Tekle (Eritrea), Jai Hindley (Australia), and Atsushi Oka (Japan) making the initial escape before several others joined them. They would then soon manage to get a lead of 2:30, a gap that stayed calm until about halfway when Italy, Norway and Denmark decided they wanted to bring the escapees back.
They would take nearly a minute off the lead and several riders would now start struggling to stay within the leaders, with several riders being dropped from the peloton. Thus, a field of 228 riders had been whittled down to a finishing group of just 60 as the final bell was rung.
With many of the key nations having at least one option still present, there was an inevitable flurry of attacks and Mauricio Moreira (Uruguay), Michael Storer (Australia), Wilmar Andres Paredes Zapata (Colombia) and Valentin Madouas (France) were five who managed to get off the front as a group although the peloton was in close attendance as the road began to rise steadily before Salmond Hill’s last ascent.
It was here that Lennard Kamna made his push for a glory, and it was a decisive one as he managed to pull out a 12-second gap on the toughest slopes of the 1.4km climb. The breakaway could not chase as the peloton was being decimated by the climb, with the chasing group eventually reeled in by the peloton.
Over the top, Cosnefroy went full gaps on the peloton, using the top tube to get as much speed as possible to catch the man in front, and the two would eventually join forces to push into Bergen. The pack got closer and closer, especially as the first two sized eachother up, but they got into the home straight first and they were not for catching after that.
The Frenchman Cosnefroy always looked to have slightly fresher legs, and took the gold medal ahead of his German rival, who had animated a terrific contest; In third Sendgaard of Denmark took the Bronze medal.
