WOLLONGONG, Australia — Belgium ace
Remco Evenepoel backed up victory at the Vuelta a Espana by storming to the world
road race title on Sunday with a spectacular solo ride to claim a first rainbow
jersey, vowing “a big party” to celebrate.
اضافة اعلان
The 22-year-old finished 2min 21sec ahead of
Frenchman Christophe Laporte after an epic 266.9km slog around the coastal city
of Wollongong south of Sydney.
Australia’s Michael Matthews was third after a last-gasp
sprint ahead of Belgium pre-race favorite Wout van Aert.
Another favorite, Dutch star Mathieu van der Poel,
abandoned the race early after he was charged with common assault late Saturday
following an alleged altercation with two teenage girls.
French two-time defending champion Julian
Alaphilippe, who had a chaotic build-up, missing much of the year with
injuries, was 51st while Slovenian two-time Tour de France winner
Tadej Pogacar came 19th.
“After a long season it’s amazing to finish like
this,” said Evenepoel, who pumped his fists and put his head in his hands in
disbelief after the 6hrs 16min endurance test.
“I’m super happy I had the legs today, it’s
something I’ve been dreaming of.”
Evenepoel launched a massive attack with 35km left
and only Alexey Lutsenko stayed with him, then he went off again on a climb 9km
later to leave the Kazakh in his wake.
He entered the final 17.2km lap with a 1min 10secs
lead and put his head down for the solo ride to the finish, becoming the first
Belgium winner since
Philippe Gilbert in 2012.
Already the winner of the Vuelta a Espana World Tour
event in September, and Liege-Bastogne-Liege earlier in the year, victory
capped a massively successful season for Evenepoel.
“It will be a big party, I’m not going to see my bed
I guess.”
The pack headed south with a sweeping coastal
traverse from the start at Helensburgh towards the heart of the championships
in Wollongong.
Once there, they tackled a steep climbing circuit
over Mount Keira, peaking at a 473m elevation, before heading back to a
technical Wollongong city route which they lapped 12 times.
‘Broken’
In warm sunshine and with
fans packing the roadside, they made a fast start with an early breakaway group
building a 95-second lead after 26km.
The gap stretched to six minutes through Mount Keira
before a 16-strong chasing pack led by Australian
Ben O’Connor reeled them in
with 139km to go.
The heavy hitters were not among them, with Pogacar,
Van Aert, and Evenepoel in a peloton conserving energy more than six minutes
adrift.
But the gap closed as the breakaway riders tired and
they were caught by a group including Evenepoel with 59km to go.
Pogacar, Van Aert and Alaphilippe were over one
minute further back and that gap only grew as Evenepoel drove the leaders
forward before launching his stunning attack that won him the race.
As the riders set off it emerged that Van der Poel
had been arrested the night before, which Christoph Roodhooft, a director of
his Team Alpecin-Deceuninck, said left him “mentally a bit broken” and he quit
the race early.
Van der Poel told Belgium broadcaster Sporza it was
an alleged dispute about “noisy neighbors”.
Police said a man was charged with assault involving
two girls aged 13 and 14, but did not name him, although Roodhooft confirmed
Van der Poel was taken to a police station.
The event brought down the curtain on a nine-day
championships which included junior, U23s and senior races for both men and
women, as well as a mixed-team event.
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