Welcome to the first event of the 2019 World Championships: the B Race. 133 riders from some of the less prominent nations are fighting for glory and, of course, a place in the A road race. Less prominent nations don’t mean less prominent riders though, as we have some bona fide superstars in this peloton, lead by 2017 winner Aleksandr Pluchkin.
The bookies are all over the place with their selection of favorites and who can blame them with this unpredictable course. Pluchkin and Rasmus Guldhammer are the strongest climbers who can also handle themselves on the cobbles and seem worthy of the top spots, but after that, things get muddy.
Pure climbers with no cobble skills like Choi and Monsalve share the list with puncheurs like Skujins and Juul-Jensen, both of whom are half-decent on cobbles, as well as pure cobblestone specialists like Pedersen and Kuroeda. And then we also have hybrids who don’t excell at anything in particular, like Van Zyl and Dunne.
So they really covered all of their bases. If you want to make an educated guess yourself, have another look at the full startlist in the discussion thread, and then let’s head into the race:
The race starts on an ever so short downhill stretch before heading straight into the first of eight ascents. We could get an indication of what type of rider shines here pretty quickly, if the pace is high early on.
The first duo of escapees skews more towards climbers: It’s Burke and Niyonshuti on the first few uphill meters!
They’re soon followed by another five riders: Gaspar leads Manulang and Sequera, then Siriwardena and Nito a bit behind. Again, all of them are pure climbers.
The former three quickly catch up with Burke and Niyonshuti, the latter two are joined by Ho and Reinhard Janse van Rensburg in their pursuit. Still a few more attacks coming from the peloton.
Only one of them sticks, but it’s a big one: Shikai, one of the best climbers in the race, has made his way to the front, where close to halfway through the climb, the 10 escapees band together to form our breakaway of the day, it seems. The peloton is around 2 minutes behind them now.
But they don’t stay together for long, and we begin to see the impact of the cobbles: Though not by much, Nito is the worst rider on this terrain and it shows, while the Top 3 cobblers - Manulang, Janse van Rensburg and Ho - push the pace.
The same is happening in the peloton, where the first riders lose contact already. While someone like Leung combines terrible cobble skills with subpar climbing and is thus not surprisingly the first to go off the back, we also have riders like Canecky and Hughes, perfectly capable climbers but simply suffering on these roads.
Speaking of suffering: As the escapees head into the steepest parts of the climb for the first time, let’s actually take a look at the terrain in a bit more detail. It’s a brutal climb, almost 10 kilometers long, starting steep, flattening just a little bit in the middle before peaking at over 20% towards the summit.
The climb has already taken its toll on the peloton, which shrinks continuously and is down to 78 riders already. Some of the top pure climbers are already off the back, most prominently Alarcon pictured here, but also the likes of Velits, Raanaweera, Krasnoperov, Nazaret and Ndayisenga. As expected, a minimum of cobblestone affinity is needed today.
The breakaway group shatters on the steepest parts of the climb, only Janse van Rensburg and Ho remain at the head of the race.
Similarly, more qualified cobblestone riders have taken over in the peloton. Saya Kuroeda is already very attentive, Ghani, his brother Shiki and Gaday follow him over the summit.
Their pace was pretty high and the peloton breaks in half on the descent! Only 41 riders remain in this group, led by Latvia with Smirnovs and Blums. Notable absentees include Brenes, Faglum Karlsson, Ji and Amador, another elite climber with horrific cobblestone skills.
Many of those splits have been patched as we head into the climb for the second time. Up front, we’re now back to a sextett, with Manulang, Shikai, Sequera and Burke catching back up. They have three minutes on the peloton, which is at 89 riders again including all guys mentioned above.
This situation is stable throughout the climb. The peloton has slowed down even further, allowing more riders to catch back up again and letting the gap to the escapees grow to 4’30. Latvia has been doing a lot of work so far, and now Ireland is showing their colors as well. They have a good cobblestone rider in Potts and a decent hybrid option with Dunne.
We can skip ahead a bit, as not a lot has been happening throughout the third and fourth ascent. With Japan now taking part in the chase, the peloton is down to 76 riders again at the start of the fifth climb and the gap to the front drops below four minutes for the first time in a while. But everything seems relatively tame so far, still.
But now we see the climbing taking its toll on the cobblestone specialists as well. Silva on the left and Gavenda on the right are some of the first of those to fall behind. Ahead of the Slovak, Amador and Alarcon are once more struggling to keep up.
And soon enough, they’re indeed off the back of the peloton, accompanied among others by Saya Kuroeda, another nothern classics specialist who did a lot of work earlier on.
The increasing pace comes from a familiar source: Smirnovs and Blums are at it again at the front of the pack. We’ve seen Skujins penned as a pre-race favorite, and considering the workload of Latvia so far, he might be in good shape!
For the first time in a while, we also see some change in the breakaway as Burke can’t keep up with his companions anymore. They still have almost four minutes on the pack at this point.
The exodus of pure climbers in the peloton continues with Vosekalns and Hiratsuka. Still led by the former’s teammate Sergis, the pack is down to under 50 riders.
The high pace of McConvey in the final meters of the fifth climb has broken a group of just 19 riders off the front of the peloton. We’ve seen this before so let’s wait a bit to see if it sticks. The biggest name caught behind is probably Choi, currently chasing with another two riders just behind this group.
Choi and his two companions make it back to the front, but at the foot of the third-to-last ascent, no one else does. So let’s take a closer look at these 22 riders:
Guldhammer
Juul-Jensen
Cort Nielsen
Pedersen
Dunne
Potts
McConvey
Skujins
Sergis
Neilandts
Bester
Van Zyl
Ghani
Marzuki
Pluchkin
Monsalve
Choi
Shiki Kuroeda
Sosnitskiy
Gaday
Karatzios
Burke
The next group of 14 riders is more than a minute behind them at this point, but the breakaway is still more than three ahead.
Neilandts is the first rider to drop next, leaving Skujins with just Sergis. Latvia is spending their ressources very early, let’s see how it pans out for them.
However, that’s not for long: Budenieks leads the chasers back to the peloton, increasing its size to 36. The 14 riders joining the group are:
Budenieks
Blums
Smirnovs
De Luna
Houle
Cataford
Gonzalez Cortes
Brenes
Faglum Karlsson
Ji
Hadi
Pereyra
Tvetcov
Karnulin
Let’s see how many of them can stick around.
Neilandts certainly can’t and neither can his teammate Blums. Immediately dropping back as well are Houle, Karatzios, Tvetcov, Pereyra and Cort Nielsen.
It’s once again McConvey setting the pace, too much for Burke, Hadi, Smirnovs and Faglum Karlsson, leaving us with 25 riders in the peloton.
But that number isn’t going to stick either, of course, as the circle of contenders becomes smaller and smaller. First Karnulin, then Brenes, Ji and Sosnitskiy are off the back.
Then it’s De Luna and Gonzalez Cortes, as the Irish continue their work at the front of the peloton. We’re down to 19 riders now, and the breakaway less than three minutes ahead for the first time in a long time.
To this humble reporter’s surprise, Monsalve was a Top 5 favorite for the bookies ahead of the race. He won’t be able to live up to that status, losing contact here. As a reminder, we’re now in the final third of the third-to-last ascent, still more than 50 kilometers to go as the carnage continues.
Moments later, his teammate Sequera can’t keep up anymore with the rest of the breakaway. A tough couple of minutes for Venezuela.
But there’s even more action up front! In the first slopes of the descent, only two riders remain in the lead: Ho and Shikai! They’ve gained around half a minute on Janse van Rensburg, who’s riding next to a lapped rider but himself has a small gap to Manulang.
After a ton of work and a very impressive performance, McConvey finally relents and falls behind just under the summit. Ahead, another trio has lost contact: Cataford, Choi and Bester have the downhill to catch up, but they don’t look great right now.
This doesn’t make it more likely though: We have the first attack in almost 150 kilometers, and it’s Gaday! He seems to have a stellar day and might want to exploit the vacuum left by McConvey.
The Argentinian gets a solid gap of around 25 seconds. Marzuki leads the chase, but we also see top favorite Pluchkin closer to the front for the first time. With Van Zyl dropping back (he’s now with the former trio around his compatriot Bester), we’re down to 12 riders. A quick reminder:
Skujins
Sergis
Budenieks
Pluchkin
Guldhammer
Juul-Jensen
Pedersen
Kuroeda
Dunne
Potts
Ghani
Marzuki
Van Zyl, Cataford, Choi and Bester all made it back before the penultimate climb to make it a group of 16 chasing Gaday, who still has just under 30 seconds on them. But the breakaway (or at least Ho and Shikai) still have three minutes in hand. Slowly but surely, the favorites and their domestiques really need to pick up the pace.
First on the agenda is getting Gaday back, though, which Dunne does quickly. Will they slow down again now?
They do, just long enough that Kuroeda gets impatient! He attacks!
His companions were attentive enough not to let him away, but the move cut into the breakaway groups’ leads. Sequera, Janse van Rensburg and Manulang are now within 45 seconds, with the leaders just another 1’20 ahead. We’re still early in the climb here.
Janse van Rensburg holds out a bit longer than his two co-escapees, who are caught by the group now led by Pluchkin. Ho and Shikai are still going strong so the Moldovan has to take matters into his own hands, but we’ve seen that a quick acceleration can decrease the gap by a good chunk, so no need to panic just yet.
A bit later, we’re back to the acquainted image of an Irishmen at the front of the group. It’s Dunne next to Juul-Jensen as the two continue to make life difficult for the rest of the group. Bester fell behind first, Sequera and Manulang follow pretty much as soon as they’re at the back of the group - Janse van Rensburg has been caught, but hangs on for now.
But only for a little bit. Falling behind alongside Van Zyl, there go South Africa’s Top 10 hopes, as well as Canada’s, with Cataford there as well, next to Ghani and Sergis.
Shockingly, we also see Skujins struggling at the backend of the group of favorites! Could all of Latvia’s work have been for naught? They still have Budenieks, but surely that’s not who they’ve pinned their hopes on.
But Skujins recovers and even Van Zyl and Ghani make it back. The reason: The pace has dropped pretty significantly, with neither Denmark nor Ireland willing or able to lead the group. As a result, the breakaway duo has more than three minutes on this group again. They have to be somewhat hopeful for a sensation by now!
Well, only one of them is! With a big effort, Shikai leaves Ho behind! The Chinese is a fantastic climber and while he shouldn’t be as fast on the cobbles, he’s flying right now and increasing his lead on the contenders even further - they have to react!
But the group has almost come to a standstill, letting Cataford catch up. In no time, the deficit to Shikai shoots up to almost five minutes! Three kilometers left on this climb.
Ho collapsed quickly and is swept up by the chasers, he’ll fall behind soon. Dunne and Juul-Jensen still lead, but again, the pace isn’t as high as it should - and needs to - be.
Just under the summit, Budenieks is cooked. Skujins is on his own for real now, and he’s again not looking all that fresh.
Indeed, moments later, he’s left to chase on his own in the descent. 13 riders in the group plus Shikai ahead of him.
All that slow pedalling is finally enough for Pluchkin! Smartly exploiting a moment when Dunne gets some fresh water bottles, he goes on the attack! He has almost five minutes to make up and it looks like he didn’t deem the final climb enough for that.
But he’s not the greatest descender, so his lead doesn’t extend further than some 25 seconds. But at least he’s getting the gap to Shikai down a little bit. Of course it’s Dunne who’s leading the chase, while Van Zyl and Cataford fell behind once more on the flat stretch leading up to the final climb.
In the first meters of the climb, Ghani and Pedersen have to let go after strong efforts by both of them.
Surprisingly, Guldhammer is in trouble shortly afterwards, falling behind next to Choi! Only Gaday, Potts, Kuroeda, Marzuki, Juul-Jensen and Dunne remain in pursuit of Pluchkin, who’s looking mighty strong right now.
(The Canadian is a lapped rider!)
In contrast, Shikai collapsed completely! So quickly in fact, that our cameras missed the moment he got overtaken by Pluchkin, who just blasted past him! And the chasing group is not far behind anymore either!
Shikai immediately drops past the chasers and also Guldhammer, who tries to save a good result. Pluchkin has just under a minute on the group behind him.
With a strong acceleration, Marzuki blows that group right up! Juul-Jensen manages to stay with him for now, with Kuroeda and Gaday trying to hang on, but the Irish duo looks done!
Before long, Marzuki is the lone first chaser, now ahead of Guldhammer, who seems to have found a second wind.
But Pluchkin is almost two minutes ahead already! Unless something miraculous happens, this looks like it’s going the way it was expected to go all along.
Marzuki is looking well, almost a minute ahead of this group behind him. In the fight for what is currently the bronze spot, Denmark still has two irons in the fire with Juul-Jensen and Guldhammer. But Kuroeda, Gaday and the ever-impressive Dunne are still hanging in there. Behind them, Choi and Potts are fighting to keep up, almost a minute and a half ahead of Shikai.
With 6.5 kilometers to go, the race has been decided as Pluchkin pushes his lead towards the five minute mark like it’s nothing. But the fight for the medals seems to become a bit clearer as well, as Guldhammer and Dunne leave the others behind. Marzuki is still a good minute ahead of them though.
Meanwhile, Choi catches up with the other three chasers. They would currently be fighting for positions five through eight.
Here’s a quick look back at the guys riding towards the final Top 10 and Top 15 spots. It’s just a grind from here on out, the riders’ brains against their bodies.
In a major development, Dunne has left Guldhammer behind and is even coming closer to Marzuki through some of the lapped riders. What a phenomenal race by the Irish.
In fact, Dunne does move into second place! Just for fun, wanna guess the current gap to Pluchkin?
Spoiler
It’s at 8 minutes now, with a bit more than 4 kilometers to go for him.
Choi seems to have conserved his energy well and goes clear of his competitors to claim fifth place, at least for now, while Juul-Jensen is struggling. But as we’ve seen, the result is far from set in stone at this point.
… with one exception, of course.
Marzuki couldn’t keep up with Dunne, he’s now 1’30 behind the Irish. But he’s also 1’30 ahead of Guldhammer, which makes his bronze seem somewhat safe. Five kilometers left.
But maybe the Dane isn’t even the main threat! Choi is having a fantastic final climb and goes past him!
Choi is flying! With three kilometers to go, he overtakes Marzuki! That’s bronze! But what about maybe even silver? Dunne is still 1’30 ahead.
It had been entirely expected, but that doesn’t make it any less impressive or worthy of praise: Finishing nine and a half hours after the start, your 2019 B World Champion is Aleksandr Pluchkin!
Dunne is giving it everything he’s got, but Choi is coming closer. 50 seconds with two kilometers to go now. We’ll stay with those two here, for now …
… or should I say those three? In an incredible display of resiliency, Marzuki is suddenly back in the race for the medals!
And now it does look like Choi overdid it with his efforts. But never say never, not in this race! 1,5 kilometers to go.
Meanwhile, Guldhammer continues to lose ground, now being overtaken by Gaday. Kuroeda is not far behind either.
But it’s time to turn back to the finish line, where Dunne crosses the line to earn a very well-deserved silver medal, eventhough he comes in more than 20 minutes (yes, twenty) behind our victor. His mix of climbing and cobblestone skills proved vital and he showed his resistance all day. Just an overall great performance!
The same is true for Marzuki, who holds on to claim Bronze. What a great day for Malaysian cycling!
Choi misses out on the podium, but fourth place is still very respectable. He had to fend off a final surge from Gaday, the Argentinian finishes fifth.
Guldhammer had a rough final few kilometers and had to let Kuroeda pass. With that, he ends up seventh. He’s also the first rider to break the ten hour mark today. Just let that sink in - ten hours on this course, and only seven riders have finished yet.
Potts on the other hand had some energy left and managed to finish eigth, bringing Ireland two riders in the Top 10. The same is true for Denmark as well though, as Juul-Jensen finishes shortly after.
Denmark gets a third rider in the Top 10 with Pedersen, who relegates Ghani to 11th, still a really good result. Van Zyl and Cataford finish ahead of Budenieks, a big disappointment for Latvia after all their efforts. Bester completes the Top 10, making it four countries with at least two riders in the Top 15.
The final rider within the time limit is Peter Velits, coming in two hours and 15 minutes behind Pluchkin in 68th, after almost twelve hours in the saddle. That’s just over half of the riders finishing, with 65 missing the time limit. This course provided as big a challenge as we thought it would.
While the winner was obvious early in the final climb, it was still an exciting race from start to finish, with the medals hotly contested and a lot of riders in the spotlight that don’t get that kind of attention in the regular season. Before we see if Aleksandr Pluchkin can repeat his impressive performance in the A race, we’ll turn to the time trialing and U23 events. Enjoy the rest of world championship week, everyone!
World Championships 
Burke and 
Niyonshuti on the first few uphill meters!
Gaspar leads 
Manulang and 
Sequera, then 
Siriwardena and 
Nito a bit behind. Again, all of them are pure climbers.
Ho and 
Reinhard Janse van Rensburg in their pursuit. Still a few more attacks coming from the peloton.
Shikai, one of the best climbers in the race, has made his way to the front, where close to halfway through the climb, the 10 escapees band together to form our breakaway of the day, it seems. The peloton is around 2 minutes behind them now.
Canecky and 
Krasnoperov, 
Saya Kuroeda is already very attentive, 
Ghani, his brother 
Gaday follow him over the summit. 
Smirnovs and 
Brenes, 
Faglum Karlsson, 
Potts and a decent hybrid option with 
Guldhammer
Pluchkin
Karatzios
De Luna
