The French rider Romain Sicard, future member of the Euskaltel-Euskadi team, wins solo the road race for Espoirs at the World Championships in Mendrisio in Switzerland.

After having won the Tour de l'Avenir in September the young French rider continues his successful career!

On the same route as the ladies this morning, the espoirs (under 23) have done a 179,4 kilometer race in 13 rounds of 13,8 km with a total height difference of 3.185 meters.

The race was quite nervous with the favourites already taking position at the front of the peloton at about 50 kilometers from the finish. All attempts to escape were however unsuccessful.
Until the French rider Romain Sicard (Orbea ; and in 2010 Euskaltel-Euskadi) attacked on the top of the first climb, the Acqua Fresca, in the forelast round and is accompanied by the Dutch rider Michel Kreder (Rabobank Continental Team ; and in 2010 for Garmin-Slipstream).

When they start the last round the leadin duo already has a 30 seconds gap on the first group of pursuers.
In the first climb of the last round the French rider little by little gets a lead on the Dutch guy who cannot follow the French rider's pace. Sicard said about this after the finish: I attacked with the Dutch guy hoping for the best, I saw he was not able to follow in the climb so I gave everything I could in the final.

While Kreder is taken back this is how Sicard manages to keep ahead with a gap which is up to 33 seconds at 3 kilometers from the finish, on his pursuers: the Russian Egor Silin and the Colombian Carlos Alberto Betancur Gómez.

He manages to stay ahead and at 21 years oldRomain Sicard thus becomes the new World Champion Espoirs, ahead of Carlos Alberto Betancur Gómez who takes the silver medal and Egor Silin who takes bronze.

The top 10

Below you'll find the top 10 of the classification for the road race Espoirs at the World Championships 2009 in Mendrisio:
1/ Romain Sicard (France) - 4h41m54s (38.183 km/h)
2/ Carlos Alberto Betancur Gómez (Colombia) - +0:27
3/ Egor Silin (Russia) - m.t.
4/ Peter Kennaugh (Great-Britain) - +0:49
5/ Jérôme Baugnies (Belgium) - +0:54
6/ Marko Kump (Slovenia) - m.t.
7/ Yevgeniy Nepomnyachshiy (Kazakhstan) - m.t.
8/ Cayetano José Sarmiento Tunarrosa (Colombia) - m.t.
9/ Matthias Brandle (Austria) - +1:00
10/ Damiano Caruso (Italy) - +1:33

> Click here to see the full classification

Of the 166 participants only 72 riders finished the race, 94 abandoned before the finish.

illustration article: Fabrysse

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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