This morning the World Championships road cycling 2010 ended with the race in line men elite. After having connected Melbourne to Geelong, the race got harder with the 11 rounds on a circuit with two steep climbs.

An early break away created a huge gap but even this wasn't enough to surprise the peloton. Several favourites tried to break away from the peloton but finally it was up to a group of about 40 riders to dispute the victory and that happened ... in a sprint. After this tough ride only Thor Hushovd had enough energy left to really go for the sprint and the Norvegian rider thus took the rainbow jersey with a bike length gap!

The summary of the road race of the 2010 World Championships in Melbourne

Quite quickly after the start a leading group was formed by 5 riders including Matthew Brammeier (IRE), Jackson Rodriguez (VEN), Oleksandr Kvachuk (UKR), Diego Alejandro Tamayo (COL) and Mohammed Said Elammoury (MOR). This leading group created a gap of no less than 25 minutes and thus almost finished the first round of the circuit in Geelong before the peloton even arrived there. Fortunately the peloton managed to enter the circuit before the 5 riders in the leading group finished their first round because otherwise the logistical problem would have been quite difficult to solve!

Not much late the Moroccan Elammoury drops from the leading group but the 4 others continue their break away.

The gap really started going down only when a group of about 25 riders started chasing, lead by Daniel Oss (ITA) in the third round on the circuit. The peloton got back together but the gap was down to 15 minutes and in each round the peloton than managed to gain back about 2'30" on the leading riders.

At about 75 km from the finish a new chasing group was formed by about 30 riders including all favourites and thanks to the work of this group the leading group of 4 was taken back.

Vincenzo Nibali (ITA) attacks twice in a row and thus initiates the creation of a new leading group with his compatriote Giovanni Visconti, the Dutch Koos Moerenhout, the Colombian Jose Rodolfo Serpa Perez and the Danish Chris Sörensen.

When this leading group is taken back at two rounds from the finish, it's Björn Leukemans' (BEL) turn to attack. He gets company of 5 riders and a new leading group is thus formed with Philippe Gilbert (BEL), Filippo Pozzato (ITA), Cadel Evans (AUS), Alexandre Kolobnev (RUS) and Niki Terpstra (NED) but this group doesn't last very long either.

When the riders enter the last round we see Fabian Cancellara (SUI) at the back of the peloton and he was thus not able to make it a double after having won the time trial on Thursday.

Philippe Gilbert attacks in the first climb of the last round. When we see that Cadel Evans has difficulties following him, the game seems to be over for the other riders, especially because Gilbert quickly gets a lead of about 20 seconds.

However, at about 3 kilometers from the finish Gilbert is taken back by Vladimir Gusev (RUS) who continues at the head of the race together with Janez Brajkovic (SLO). Niki Terpstra chases back to these riders and a group of three continues.

In the final we only see the Dutch rider in the lead but his gap on the group is not big enough. The group thus gets back on him and it all ends in a sprint. The toughest sprinter of the peloton, Thor Hushovd (NOR), than shows he's the strongest and wins this race in line of the 2010 World Championships.
He finishes more than a bike length ahead of Matti Breschel (DAN) and Allan Davis (AUS). Filippo Pozzato (ITA) finishes 4th and Romain Feillu is the best French rider at the 10th place.

After the finish Thor Hushovd shows his happiness but is more looking to cool down than describing his race: This was a dream and now this dream becomes truth. I don't have any words for this.

The images of the race (videos)

Here's some images of the race:

The start of the race in Melbourne :

The early break away :

The last kilometer and Thor Hushovd' victory:

The post race interview with Thor Hushovd :

The video summary of the race :

And finally, the medal ceremony :

The top 20 of the classification

Here's the top 20 of the ranking for the race in line at the 2010 World Championships road cycling in Melbourne/Geelong:

1/ Thor Hushovd (NOR) - 6h21m49s (40,417 km/h)
2/ Matti Breschel (DEN)
3/ Allan Davis (AUS)
4/ Filippo Pozzato (ITA)
5/ Greg van Avermaet (BEL)
6/ Oscar Freire Gomez (ESP)
7/ Alexandr Kolobnev (RUS)
8/ Assan Bazayev (KAZ)
9/ Yukiya Arashiro (JPN)
10/ Romain Feillu (FRA)
11/ Grega Bole (SLO)
12/ Dmitriy Fofonov (KAZ)
13/ Koos Moerenhout (NED)
14/ Fabian Wegmann (GER)
15/ Andre Fernando S. Martins Cardoso (POR)
16/ Fränk Schleck (LUX)
17/ Cadel Evans (AUS)
18/ Philippe Gilbert (BEL)
19/ Niki Terpstra (NED) +0'07"
20/ Björn Leukemans (BEL)

>> Click here to download the full classification

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Cycling general (except Tour de France) | World Championships Melbourne 2010

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