Remco and Annemiek save the world(s)

After a bit of moaning from me in the build up to the Australian hosted world championships, I have to say that they delivered more than anticipated.

A bad looking fall in the midweek relay time trial left Annemiek Van Vleuten unlikely to even start the Womens race on Saturday. But, she managed to patch up her fractured elbow and take her place at kilometer zero.

There were plenty of times, even in the closing stages, where she looked likely to get dropped. She was also placed in the second or third group on the road more than once. It looked like a case of hanging on to get the best finish possible.

But as groups merged in the final kilometer AVV came to life.

She darted down the right hand side of the road with the perfectly timed attack.

After lots of riders trying to get away without success, this was one increase in pace and it stuck.

She was the most deserving of champions of the world and the finish will go down in history. It would have been epic, even without broken bones.

Rnk	Rider	Team	UCI	Pnt	Time
1	VAN VLEUTEN Annemiek	Netherlands	600	350	4:24:25
2	KOPECKY Lotte	Belgium	475	260	0:01
3	PERSICO Silvia	Italy	400	190	,,
4	LIPPERT Liane	Germany	325	150	,,
5	LUDWIG Cecilie Uttrup	Denmark	275	130	,,
6	SIERRA Arlenis	Cuba	225	110	,,
7	LABOUS Juliette	France	175	100	,,
8	NIEWIADOMA Katarzyna	Poland	150	90	,,
9	CHABBEY Elise	Switzerland	125	80	,,
10	LONGO BORGHINI Elisa	Italy	100	70	,,

Once Mathieu van der Poel had dropped out of the men’s race following a night of disruption at his hotel, culminating in a visit to the police station, all eyes were on Belgium for the win.

After the drama of Leuven last year, everyone wanted to see how the dynamic between Wout van Aert and Remco Evenepoel would play out.

Most pundits agreed that Remco would be the one to attack early and Wout would save himself for any sprint finish.

That’s exactly how it played out with the recent Vuelta winner slipping into a late group and then dropping its other members one by one.

It was as dominant a worlds performance as I can remember.

He soloed home with very little stress to cement himself as the rider of the late season and take the rainbow jersey.

Rnk	Rider	Team	UCI	Pnt	Time
1	EVENEPOEL Remco	Belgium	600	350	6:16:08
2	LAPORTE Christophe	France	475	260	2:21
3	MATTHEWS Michael	Australia	400	190	,,
4	VAN AERT Wout	Belgium	325	150	,,
5	TRENTIN Matteo	Italy	275	130	,,
6	KRISTOFF Alexander	Norway	225	110	,,
7	SAGAN Peter	Slovakia	175	100	,,
8	BETTIOL Alberto	Italy	150	90	,,
9	HAYTER Ethan	Great Britain	125	80	,,
10	SKJELMOSE Mattias	Denmark	100	70	,,

A couple of notable rides came from Peter Sagan who showed his best form in a couple of years to come home seventh and our own Ethan Hayter who made the top 10.

Now we move on to the end of season Italian classics races and cyclocross… gone quickly hasn’t it?