Welcome to the main event of the 2017 World Championships in Nagasaki, the Elite Road Race. We have seen pure climbers taking the win in both B and U23 races, the pure puncheur might not be the real favourites today, and instead a rider like Simon Spilak could be considered the top favourite for the win today
We have awful weather conditions today, with heavy rain and some wind that will be an enemy for the riders. Three brave riders attack from the first km, from Polish, Swiss and Kazakh teams. They are Marycz, Schurter and Ubermekov
We are going to see a day full of crashes in the tricky descents with the rain, and after only 30 kms of race we had the first big one. And some big favourites are in the ground, like Lutsenko or Bobridge. We can see several riders of Kazakhstan waiting for their leader. Also, McCarthy, A. Yates, Nibali, Kump, Warbasse, Waeytens and Kirsch were involved in the crash, but we had the first retirement of the race, with Eduard Beltran breaking his collarbone.
And another crash only a couple of corner after the earlier crash, and again, some leaders are affected, like Froome, S.Yates, Betancourt, Schreurs, Anuar Aziz, Phinney, Bilbao, Kwiatkowski, Pluchkin and Machado. This is going to be a survival race, and maybe the World Champions is just the rider who doesn’t crash today
The weather is much better with 150 kms to go, and it’s being a while since we had a crash. Hopefully we don’t have to report more crashes today
Terrible news for both Kazakh and Dutch team, as both Lutsenko and Schreurs look heavy injured and can’t stay in the bunch with still 7 laps to finish the race. Also in the back of the group, we can spot Kump and Pluchkin, two riders that crashed before, so they might be injured too
And another crash in a descent, with 120 kms to go. No big favourites involved, but second tier riders like Zaini, Tenorio or Mehr-Wenige. The gap of the breakaway is stable around 7 minutes
The reigning World Champion is on the ground! Crash for Sam Bewley, and half of the New Zealand team too. He didn’t have much chanes to take a second title, but you never know with this guy, but this crash surely make all his chances to disappear
50 kms to go and Umerbekov is proving to be the strongest of the leading trio, as he has dropped the others in Inadasake, while the bunch is led by Slovenia, who are putting a strong effort to help Spilak, which has led to the gap to Umerbekov being 1’30
The bunch is catching Marycz and Schurter with 2 laps to go, 40 kms left in this race to know who will be the new World Champion, once Bewley is not anymore in the group, while also other riders like Simon Yates, Kritsky, Anuar Aziz are no longer in the bunch
The calm before the storm? Umerbekov’s gap has rised to over 2 minutes in the first slopes of Idanasake, and it seems like no one is willing to work in the group. Probably someone will get nervous soon and attack
Dyrnes leads the group over the climb of Chome, with 25 kms to go, working for EBH, but still things are very calm. The gap of Umerbekov is still 1’30, and the Kazakh wouldn’t have ever thought of starting the final lap of a WC in the lead
And the winner of Milano-Sanremo can’t keep with the pace and is dropped when there are still 80 riders in the bunch. Surprising bad day for the Belgian, who could be one of the favourites with the slow pace all day. Also in that group we see riders like Dowett, Waeytens, Morton, Velits or Bennett
We can assure that the local hero Kinoshita won’t win today, as he’s dropped from the bunch in the moment the group starts the final climb to Idanasake, with Italy taking over the chase of Umerbekov
14 kms to go and still no attacks. Umerbekov won’t win because his gap is only 40 seconds and he looks completely wasted, but he’s the only one that seems to want to win today
FINALLY!!! Simone Ponzi attacks within the final km of Idanasaki!
Ponzi has opened a 30-second gap, while it’s up to Bakelants, Hagen, Spilak and Trofimov to close the gap, as they tried to counter attack but they didn’t escape from the group. Now it comes Chome, which it’s summit is only 5 kms away from the finish line
But nothing happens in Chome, Bakelants still pulling from the group, but the gap remains around 30 seconds. The only big news is that Demare, a rider who could benefit from this race scenario, is dropped
3 kms to go for Ponzi and his gap is now reduced to 22 seconds with Spilak taking care of the chase. Bakelants, Van Garderen, Trofimov, Sagan, Gesink, Kelderman, Flugel, Gastauer, Hagen and Phinney are all in the first places of the group, ready to sprint for the medals or even the Rainbow Jersey
A little more than 1 km for Ponzi, who seems to be holding that gap to become the new World Champion. Spilak is unable to close the gap (there’s a Kazakh rider that is lapped, who happens to be Lutsenko) and it looks like the group will sprint for the Silver medal
Bakelants starts his sprint from a long way back, trying to do the impossible of catching Ponzi, but it’s obviously impossible...
... as Simone Ponzi crosses the line and wins the 2017 World Championship! The Italian star had win pretty much everything in his career, but not the Worlds. Now he has done it!
Bakelants wins easily the sprint for the Silver medal, even opening a gap to the rest of the group, who is now fighting for the Bronze medal
And Peter Sagan gets the Bronze medal, after beating in a close sprint Trofimov and Van Garderen, who close the Top5. Gesink gets the 6th place
Seventh is Skujins, finishing ahead of Hagen, Dombrowski and Phinney, which makes 3 USA riders in the Top10, and 0 medals
Simone Ponzi goes to the podium to get his Rainbow Jersey, which he’ll wear during the 2018 season with his team Hugo Boss. It’s the second big win of the season for him, after winning the 4th Monument of his career this year in Liege
