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August 23, Elite men marathon: 104km

Belgium's Paulissen wins second consecutive marathon World Championship

By:
Sue George, Mountain Bike Editor
Published:
August 23, 2009, 20:17,
Updated:
August 24, 2009, 16:06

Austria's Lakata, Switzerland's Sauser round out podium

Roel Paulissen (Belgium) wins the 2009 world marathon championship.

Roel Paulissen (Belgium) wins the 2009 world marathon championship.

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Roel Paulissen rode to his second consecutive world marathon championship on Sunday. The Belgian finished in 4:34:36 after completing a tough, hilly 104km course in Austria. Alban Lakata (Austria) finished just 51 seconds back in second while 2007 marathon world champion Christoph Sauser (Switzerland) was third at 4:39.

"This victory is a great moment in my life, and I was able to celebrate it during the last meters to the finish line," said Paulissen, who finished solo.

Riding in good form, Paulissen was near the front on the very first climb, where he chased Wolfram Kurschat (Germany). Paulissen caught and passed Kurschat on the descent. A few riders joined them and formed a group at the front, then Paulissen later escaped with Alexey Medvedev (Russia) on a downhill where the men were overtaking the women.

"It was simply chaos there, because we caught the women," said Sauser on his blog www.sauserwind.com. "They did start after us, but rode a shorter course, and passing was very difficult."

"I knew Alexey from the Italian marathons. He is a good cyclist," said Paulissen of his breakaway companion. "Wolfram Kurschat and Albana Lakata were chasing us, but I had prepared well for this course. I knew that I absolutely had to stay on the bike and climb well at the end - even though recent weather had created some sections better suited to walking."

Lakata and the others worked hard to close the gap, and on that final climb, Medvedev gave indications to Paulissen he wasn't doing well. The Belgian powered away solo, yet he still had another 20km of descending to go.

"The downhill was not easy, but I put out everything I had," said Paulissen, who went into the day thinking he was riding for a podium rather than the win after suffering some recent back pain.

Behind Paulissen, the final downhill changed the podium significantly. Medvedev lost time - dropping to sixth - with a flat tire and so did Thomas Dietsch (France), who had crested the final climb in third, but ended up 11th. Lakata and Sauser took second and third. Christoph Soukup (Austria) and Kurschat were fourth and fifth respectively.

"The whole race felt like a cross country race, or that is how it felt to me," said Sauser. "The climbs were never ending, and for most of the time, you could only ride in the saddle because the ground was too washed out."

Pre-race favorite Leo Paez (Columbia) had a tough day and finished 10th.

"I was hoping for a better result," said Paez. "When it came to doing the race, I started to suffer cramps: in those conditions was very difficult to increase my pace with the other favorites. I had to keep my pace. Now I will concentrate on the season's final grandfondo-type events and possibly the cross country World Championships in Canberra."

Results

# Rider Name (Country) Team Result
1 Roel Paulissen (Belgium) 4:34:37  
2 Alban Lakata (Austria) 0:00:51  
3 Christoph Sauser (Switzerland) 0:04:40  
4 Christoph Soukup (Austria) 0:05:55  
5 Wolfram Kurschat (Germany) 0:06:06  
6 Alexey Medvedev (Russian Federation) 0:07:13  
7 Dario David Cioni (Italy) 0:08:49  
8 Kevin Evans (South Africa) 0:09:03  
9 Lukas Buchli (Switzerland) 0:09:34  
10 Hector Leonardo Paez Leon (Colombia) 0:10:21  
11 Thomas Dietsch (France) 0:10:55  
12 Massimo De Bertolis (Italy) 0:11:12  
13 Urs Huber (Switzerland) 0:13:41  
14 Rudi Van Houts (Netherlands) 0:13:47  
15 Mirko Celestino (Italy) 0:14:07  
16 Andreas Kugler (Switzerland) 0:15:56  
17 Bas Peters (Netherlands) 0:15:56  
18 Jan Jobanek (Czech Republic) 0:17:20  
19 Hannes Genze (Germany) 0:19:40  
20 Tim Bohme (Germany) 0:19:41  
21 Ramses Bekkenk (Netherlands) 0:22:11  
22 Bart Brentjens (Netherlands) 0:22:30  
23 Oliver Beckingsale (Great Britain) 0:22:46  
24 Karl Markt (Austria) 0:22:54  
25 Thomas Zahnd (Switzerland) 0:23:02  
26 Julio Humberto Caro Silva (Colombia) 0:24:17  
27 Mirko Pirazzoli (Italy) 0:24:28  
28 Robert Mennen (Germany) 0:25:08  
29 Jakob Nimpf (Austria) 0:25:26  
30 Johann Pallhuber (Italy) 0:25:32  
31 Gilberto Simoni (Italy) 0:25:37  
32 Alejandro Diaz De La Pena Lopez (Spain) 0:28:21  
33 Matthias Leisling (Germany) 0:29:09  
34 Georg Koch (Austria) 0:29:56  
35 Carsten Bresser (Germany) 0:30:31  
36 Jukka Vastaranta (Finland) 0:31:10  
37 Rafael Visinelli (Italy) 0:31:11  
38 Frank Schotman (Netherlands) 0:32:53  
39 Michal Lami (Slovakia) 0:33:24  
40 Heinz Zörweg (Austria) 0:36:14  
41 Roland Golderer (Germany) 0:36:15  
42 Jelmer Pietersma (Netherlands) 0:36:25  
43 Mike Felderer (Italy) 0:37:39  
44 Michael Binder (Austria) 0:37:56  
45 Thomas Stoll (Switzerland) 0:38:50  
46 Benjamin Wittrup Justesen (Denmark) 0:39:59  
47 Kevin Van Hoovels (Belgium) 0:40:44  
48 Andras Parti (Hungary) 0:40:56  
49 Christian Schneidawind (Germany) 0:41:47  
50 Thomas Strobl (Austria) 0:42:14  
51 Matej Mugerli (Slovenia) 0:42:24  
52 Martin Kellermann (Austria) 0:43:08  
53 Allan Oras (Estonia) 0:43:09  
54 Magnus Darvell (Sweden) 0:43:15  
55 Rene Tann (Germany) 0:43:54  
56 Friedrich Dahler (Switzerland) 0:44:52  
57 Lucien Peterhans (Switzerland) 0:44:52  
58 Adrian Jackson (Australia) 0:46:01  
59 Lars Bleckur (Sweden) 0:46:14  
60 Marton Blazso (Hungary) 0:47:52  
61 Mikael Salomonsson (Sweden) 0:48:04  
62 Stefan Roffler (Switzerland) 0:48:12  
63 Gerhard Kaufmann (Austria) 0:48:55  
64 Ryan Sherlock (Ireland) 0:49:08  
65 Hermann Pernsteiner (Austria) 0:49:49  
66 Peter Unterwaditzer (Austria) 0:51:09  
67 Ervins Smolins (Latvia) 0:52:11  
68 Karl Schaberreiter (Austria) 0:53:44  
69 Zdenek Faber (Slovakia) 0:54:30  
70 Nejc Cernilogar (Slovenia) 0:55:40  
71 Jhon Jairo Botero Salazar (Colombia) 0:56:00  
72 Paul Oldham (Great Britain) 0:56:22  
73 Bartosz Janowski (Poland) 0:56:33  
74 Manfred Zöger (Austria) 0:57:47  
75 Lenart Noc (Slovenia) 0:57:58  
76 Caspar Austa (Estonia) 0:57:59  
77 Johannes Holas (Austria) 0:58:56  
78 Shaun Lewis (Australia) 1:04:11  
79 Pavao Roset (Croatia) 1:05:00  
80 Falk Putzke (Germany) 1:08:22  
81 Sebastian Muth (Germany) 1:08:32  
82 Alexander Sanchez (Costa Rica) 1:10:12  
83 Bartosz Banach (Poland) 1:12:28  
84 Bernd Tauderer (Austria) 1:12:53  
85 Syun Matsumoto (Japan) 1:14:48  
86 Tor Halvor Bjornstad (Norway) 1:15:29  
87 Harlan Price (United States Of America) 1:15:31  
88 Andreas Gatterer (Austria) 1:16:31  
89 Andras Szatmary (Hungary) 1:17:21  
90 Gabor Bogar (Hungary) 1:17:22  
91 Daigoro Yamada (Japan) 1:18:11  
92 Jonathan Camacho (Costa Rica) 1:18:59  
93 Lucian Logigan (Romania) 1:20:07  
94 Nicolae Juganaru Razvan (Romania) 1:24:03  
95 Gints Jakovels (Latvia) 1:24:36  
96 Mike Blewitt (Australia) 1:31:39  
97 Thibault Sabatier (France) 1:32:32  
98 Justin Price (New Zealand) 1:35:29  
99 Victor Galvez Perez (Chile) 1:38:11  
100 Thomas Achouri (Belgium) 1:39:28  
101 Filip Turk (Croatia) 1:39:45  
102 Olivier Raguideau (France) 1:41:36  
103 Ales Hrvatin (Croatia) 1:46:18  
104 Timothy Carleton (Canada) 1:46:23  
105 Daniel Marius Rosioru (Romania) 1:50:31  
106 Marius-Cristian Petrache (Romania) 1:50:31  
107 José Guadalupe Cruz Salas (Mexico) 1:53:22  
108 Ivo Rubinic (Croatia) 1:53:27  
109 Ernests Benhens (Latvia) 1:56:03  
110 Romuald Houin (France) 1:59:06  
111 Jose Antonio Riquelme (Chile) 2:02:03  
112 Eric Weber (France) 2:08:34  
113 Rafal Lukawski (Poland) 2:33:02  
114 Thibaut Ruamps (France) 2:34:17  
115 Bernhard Robert Danitz Duk (Chile) 2:51:39  
116 Benjamin Bonneuil (France) 2:53:16  
DNF Stefan Sahm (Germany)    
DNF Heinz Verbnjak (Austria)    
DNF Daniel Federspiel (Austria)    
DNF Silvio Wieltschnig (Austria)    
DNF Daniel Geismayer (Austria)    
DNF Torsten Marx (Germany)    
DNF Thomas Schaberreiter (Austria)    
DNF Andreas Kirchberger (Austria)    
DNF Bram Rood (Netherlands)    
DNF Wolfgang Krenn (Austria)    
DNF Ivan Rybarik (Czech Republic)    
DNF Samuel Faruhn (Germany)    
DNF Phil Cortes (Canada)    
DNF Andris Smirnovs (Latvia)