Well the 2011 Road Race World Championships has come and
gone. Often cycling is quite predictable, and today this was true. For a long
time the pundits had been talking about this as Cav's course and it was. Today
Mark Cavendish became the second Britain, after Tom Simpson, to win the converted
rainbow jersey.
I will talk about the race briefly, other race reports are here, here and
here. The early group got a good lead, and indeed did well being in the lead
for over 180 km. This early break was joined by another more dangerous group of
5 riders including Johan Vansummeren (winner of this year's Paris-Roubaix).
However, the new amalgamated group was caught within the last 30 km. The main
event of the race was the split in the field due to a crash which ended the
chances of Thor Hushovd (the peloton was split in two with the second group
about 1-2 minutes behind). The last 30 km featured a few attacks, the most
dangerous of which was the trio of Tommy Voeckler (FRA), Klaas Lodewyck (BEL)
and Niki Soresen (DEN). However the race was brought together in the last lap
by team GB. Mark Cavendish won from a hectic sprint only appearing at the last
minute to pip Matt Goss to the line with Andrie Griepel in third place, the
Cancellera a very tight fourth.
This was a textbook performance from team GB who rode a steady pace throughout
and didn’t at any time panic. Steve Cummings and Chris Froome did excellent
turns of the front during the main part (70 km - 200 km) with Bert Grabsch of
Germany helping. Bradley Wiggins and David Millar did a lot of the work in the
last part of the race, with Bradley Wiggins doing an incredible turn in the
last lap.
Cav was led out by Geriant Thomas and Ian Stannard, however in the heat of
the moment Cav was cut off in the last 500 m. He managed to weaver his way
through the field to pounce in the last couple of hundred metres. It really
should put to bed the comments about Cav needing a perfect lead out. It was a technically
excellent recovery, requiring good bike handling/ navigation through the pack
and speed. It was similar to his Tour of Britain stage win in London, and
indeed it was very reminiscent of the way Robbie McEwen used to win.
The race was less exciting as I was expecting (with the obvious exception of
the last km) and many of the attacks were neutered. One thing that really
annoyed me was the feeding zone, which was in a very inappropriate place that
made attacks during the race more difficult.
However the result was good, congratulations to Mark Cavendish and Team GB
who did an excellent job.
(PS this will be the last post about cycling for a while, I have done quite a few so far)
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