The road race of the World Championships road cycling is often a race in which the riders are worn out due to the big distance. This was again the case today in Tuscany, not only because of the distance but also because of the rain which was present on the race almost all day long. A breakaway of 5 riders made most of the race but at 2 laps from the finish the last survivors of this group were taken back and the race could thus start all over again ... with a peloton which was of course quite reduced already, due to the fatigue, crashes and the bad weather. In the final, 4 strong riders were leading the race, with Joaquim Rodriguez and Alejandro Valverde for Spain, the Portuguese rider Rui Costa and the Italian Vincenzo Nibali. Joaquim Rodriguez seemed to be the strongest rider of these 4 leading riders but playing good tactics, Rui Costa finally goes off with the title of World Champion 2013!

The summary of the race in line men elite of the World Championships road cycling 2013

The race in line men elite of the World Championships road cycling 2013 took place between Lucca and Firenze (Florence) under a grey sky and pooring rain.

With a part in line and 10 laps on the circuit around Florence, the 208 riders at the start of the race had 272.26 kilometers to do (check out or check back the race route) before being able to dispute the victory which allows to wear the rainbow jersey for the year to come!

Right from the start several riders tried to get away but it was only with the attack of the Tunisian Rafaâ Chtioui and the Polish Bartosz Huzarski that the breakaway of the day was formed, since these two riders were joined by the Austrian Matthias Brändle, the Czech Jan Barta and the youngest rider in the race, the Venezuelan Yonder Godoy. Those 5 riders rapidly created quite a gap and behind them it was mainly the British team which did the work, among others with Mark Cavendish working hard. Despite these efforts, the gap first went up to 8'02" after 54 kilometers in the race before going back down just a little bit. But at about twenty kilometers from the entrance on the circuit, the gap went back up and reached its maximum value at 8'35" while the weather conditions got even worse:

Espectaculares las condiciones meteorológicas del Mundial #Toscana2013 ¡Así llega la fuga a las calles de Florencia! pic.twitter.com/CNL0QJTRDf

— Zona Matxin (@ZONAMATXIN) September 29, 2013

At the first crossing of the finish line, when the riders still had 165.7 kilometers to do on a circuit they had to do 10 times, the gap of the 5 men strong group is still 7'46" and the British team's efforts are taken over by the Italian riders of the peloton.

In the second climb of the circuit (the circuit included a 4.37 km climb at 5.2% and a 600 meters long ramp at 10.2%), short and steep, the leading group briefly lost one of its elements, Jan Barta, but he finally came back and reintegrated the breakaway. After the second crossing of the finish line, Mark Cavendish and Bradley Wiggins pay for their efforts at the head of the peloton and abandon.

Bartos Huzarski is the next rider to lose contact with the breakaway, this time due to a mechanical problem, but he also gets back to the group.

The rain and the wet roads lead to several crashes and because of those crashes and the weather conditions which don't really motivate the riders, there's only just a bit over half of the peloton left at a bit over 7 laps from the finish.

In the Via Salviata (the short but steep climb), the Italian team makes the group which forms the first half of the peloton explode and a group of 13 riders gets away due to this accelleration: Diego Ulissi, Vincenzo Nibali, Michele Scarponi, Luca Paolini, Filippo Pozzato and Rinaldo Nocentini for Italy, Wilco Kelderman and Bauke Mollema for The Netherlands, last year's winner Philippe Gilbert for Belgium, Andriy Grivko (Ukraine), the Swiss riders Fabian Cancellara and Gregory Rast and Carlos Betancur for Colombia. After having crossed the finish line, this group gets company by a part of the peloton again and thus forms a group of 54 riders chasing behind the 5 leading riders. Thanks to this junction, Spain is also in full force in this group, with 5 riders: Alberto Contador, Luis Léon Sanchez, Alejandro Valverde, Joaquim Rodriguez et Daniel Moreno.

At a bit under 110 kilometers from the finish, Rafaâ Chtioui, at the origin of the attack, and Matthias Brändle then decide to sit up and this means a trio of riders is leading the race, with a gap which goes just under 2 minutes.

In the 5th lap, the leading group also loses Yonder Godoy and we thus only have Jan Barta and Bartosz Huzarski leading the race, with a 3'25" gap on the peloton at the 5th crossing of the finish line.

In the next lap, when the gap goes down to 2 minutes, Wilco Kelderman (The Netherlands) and Georg Preidler (Austria) start the chase behind the leading duo, just like Cyril Gautier (France) who's a bit behind them and gets company from Giovanni Visconti (Italy) a bit later.

At 3 laps from the finish, the leading duo still has a 17 seconds gap on the duo Kelderman and Preidler, 32 on the duo Gautier and Visconti and 1'44" on the very reduced peloton. In this lap of the circuit, Gautier and Visconti get back on Kelderman and Preidler while Bartosz Huzarski attacks in the climb towards Fievole and thus starts a solo lead. Jan Barta is quickly taken back by Giovanni Visconti who attacked from the chasing group and at the bottom of the descent the Italian rider gets back on the Polish rider leading the race, knowing that Huzarski has been ahead all day long ... and this new leading duo crosses the finish line at 2 laps from the finish with a 1'09" gap on the peloton.

With a little bit under 35 kilometers to go, Darwin Atapuma (Colombia) gets in the lead of the peloton and thanks to his work the gap drops down quickly and the leading duo is finally taken back in the forelast climb towards Fiesole.

From this group, at 21.6 km from the finish, the French rider Romain Bardet attacks, on top of the Via Salvati, but Scarponi doesn't let him go and brings back the peloton on the rider in bleu.

At the next crossing of the finish line, 42 riders start the last lap together to dispute the title of World Champion! In the climb towards Fiesole, Michele Scarponi attacks and Joaquim Rodriguez chases behind him. Several other riders (including Rigoberto Uran and Alejandro Valverde) join these two strong riders, including Vincenzo Nibali who attacks and is followed only by Rodriguez.
The weather gives a helping hand since the sun came through in the last two laps and thus started to dry up the road, the leading duo thus goes down full speed. Rigoberto Uran, who was one of the chasing riders, takes one of the turns too large however and a spectacular crash reduces his chances to win this World Championship to zero!

In the descent Joaquim Rodriguez manages to get rid of Nibali. Behind Rodriguez, Rui Costa and Alejandro Valverde get back on Vincenzo Nibali and in the climb of the Via Salviata these 3 riders get back on Rodriguez again and we thus have 4 leading riders at only a few kilometers from the finish. Rodriguez doesn't however abandon his hope to take the rainbow jersey and attacks once more while Rui Costa chases behind him. This duo keeps looking at each other in the last 250 meters and Rui Costa goes off to take the victory in the sprint! Rui Costa thus becomes the first Portuguese rider to wear the rainbow jersey ...

The classification of the race in line men elites of the World Championships road cycling 2013

Here's the top 10 of the 2013 World Championships:

1/ Rui Costa (Portugal) - 7h25'43"
2/ Joaquim Rodriguez (Spain)
3/ Alejandro Valverde (Spain) - +0'17"
4/ Vincenzo Nibali (Italy)
5/ Andriy Grivko (Ukraine) - +0'31"
6/ Peter Sagan (Slovakia) - +0'34"
7/ Simon Clarke (Australia)
8/ Maxim Iglinskiy (Kazakhstan)
9/ Philippe Gilbert (Belgium)
10/ Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland)

For the other races of the World Championships, the results and video summaries are available in the calendar World Championships 2013 of interactive UCI cycling calendar.

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: World Championships Tuscany 2013

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