Today the road race for Elites took place at the World Championships in Mendrisio, Switzerland. The surprising winner is called Cadel Evans for Australia.

After the start at 10.30AM in Mendrisio rather quickly a leading group of 6 riders was formed by André Greipel (Germany), Yukiya Arashiro (Japan), Matija Kvasina (Croatia), Christoph Sokoll (Austria), Peter Kusztor (Hungary) and Jan Barta (Czech Republic).
4 riders start the chase and manage to bridge the gap. The 6 riders in the leading group thus get company from Gorazd Stangelj (Slovenia), Mauricio Ardila (Colombia), Olegs Melehs (Latvia) and Volodymyr Zagorodny (Ukrain). The 10 riders get a maximum gap of 8'30".

At a bit over 100 kilometers from the finish, just before Olges Melehs gives way to the leading group, 9 riders get away from the peloton. Not surprisingly Italy and Spain are present in this group: the current World Champion Alessandro Ballan, Michele Scarponi and Giovanni Visconti for Italy, Joaquin Rodriguez for Spain, Greg van Avermaet and Francis de Greef for Belgium, Michael Albasini of the host country (Switzerland), Paul Martens for Germany and the Dutch rider we saw a lot during the Vuelta a España 2009, Johnny Hoogerland. Finally 19 other riders joined this group and the chasing group was thus made of 28 riders. Among the additional riders was some additional Spanish support formed by Daniel Moreno and Juan José Cobo, but also the Belgian sprinter Tom Boonen, Christophe Riblon for France, Rubens Bertogliati and Olivier Zaugg for Switzerland, Rein Taaramae (Estonia), Kim Kirchen for Luxembourg, the Colombian Leonardo Duque and the Russian rider Vladimir Karpets. One hour later, the chasing group is still 1'53" behind the leading group and 1'06" before the peloton, but at 51 kilometers from the finish the chasers finally bridge the gap to the leading group!

Leonardo Duque attacks when there are still 3 tours to go, followed a bit later by Johnny Hoogerland. Hoogerland quite easily gets back to Duque and than passes him while Joaquin Rodriguez bridges the gap to him. Finally the three riders are all taken back and Alessandro Ballan than leads the group ... until Leonardo Duque attacks again, this time together with Greg van Avermaet, but at 31 kilometers from the finish they are again taken back.

At that time, it's up to one of the riders of the initial leading group (!) to attack: Gorazd Stangelj. In this forelast round the Slovenian rider gets company from the Spanish rider Joaquin Rodriguez, who joins him together with Kim Kirchen and Giovanni Visconti among others.

Finally everyone gets back together thanks to Fabian Cancellara's work (Switzerland), the brand new World Champion Time Trial.

Led by Basso and Cunego for Italy, a group of about 20 riders is formed in the climb of the Torrazza di Novazzano but the pace is too high for the 2009 World Champion, Alessandro Ballan, who can no longer follow this group. At the forelast crossing of the finish line, Alexandre Vinokourov (Kazakhstan) decides to attack. He manages to create a little gap but in the climb of the Acqua Fresca, Alexandr Kolobnev (Russia) and Johnny Hoogerland bridge the gap with him. Kolobnev continues alone but Fabian Cancellara quite easily gets back to him. In his wheel we find Philippe Gilbert (Belgium), Samuel Sanchez, Alejandro Valverde and Joaquin Rodriguez for Spain, Matti Breschel (Denmark), Damiano Cunego (Italy) and Cadel Evans (Australia).
Fabian Cancellara continues leading this group in the descent and only Samuel Sanchez seems to be able to follow him. Finally however, he doesn't manage to get away from his opponents.

After the descent, Alexandr Kolobnev attacks again, this time together with Cadel Evans and Joaquin Rodriguez. The three riders don't really work together and at the foot of the last climb of the Torrazza di Novazzano, Cadel Evans decides to attack!
On the top of this last climb the Australian rider has a 12 seconds gap on Kolobnev and Rodriguez and 24 on the other favourites.

He finally manages to stay ahead of the chasers so he can wear the rainbow jersey until the end of September 2010!

Alexandr Kolobnev takes the silver medal for Russia while Spain disappoints with the bronze medal for Joaquin Rodriguez.

Fabian Cancellara who really wanted (and dit everything he could!) to become a double World Champion finished 5th.

Next year Cadel Evans can thus defend his rainbow jersey in his country of origin because the World Championships 2010 will take place in Melbourne in Australia!

A nice challenge for this great loser who wins today, as the commentators on Eurosport France called him, refering to his different places of honour in the Grand Tours without ever winning one.

The classification

Below you can find the top 10 of the ranking for the World Championships Road 2009 in Mendrisio:

1/ Cadel Evans (Australia / Silence-Lotto) - 6h56m26s (37,777 km/h)
2/ Alexandr Kolobnev (Russia / Saxo Bank) - +0'27"
3/ Joaquin Rodriguez (Spain / Caisse d'Epargne) - z.t.
4/ Samuel Sanchez (Spain / Euskaltel-Euskadi) - +0'30"
5/ Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland / Saxo Bank) - z.t.
6/ Philippe Gilbert (Belgium / Silence-Lotto) - +0'51"
7/ Matti Breschel (Denmark / Saxo Bank) - z.t.
8/ Damiano Cunego (Italy / Lampre-NGC) - z.t.
9/ Alejandro Valverde (Spain / Caisse d'Epargne) - z.t.
10/ Simon Gerrans (Australia / Cervélo TestTeam) - 1'47"

> Click here to see the full classification

Of the 202 participants only 108 riders appear in the classification. 94 riders did not finish these World Championships.

The videos

Below you can find the images of the last kilometers and of the podium:

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Cycling general (except Tour de France) | World Championships Mendrisio 2009

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