UCI Road World Championships: Viktória Chladoňová beats Isabella Holmgren to wins under-23 women's title

Viktoria Chladaňová (Slovakia) outsprinted Canada’s Isabella Holmgren to win the under-23 women’s road race at the UCI Road World Championships, going one better than her silver medal last year to claim her country's first-ever gold medal in the discipline.

"It's an amazing feeling, and I still can't believe it!" Chladaňová said. "It wasn't an easy ride, and I'm so happy."

Forced to be at the front as the pair sped under the red kite, Chladaňová waited for Holmgren to launched her sprint first, and then powered past the Canadian with 125 metres to go to bring home the gold.

Belgian Fleur Moors accelerated from the chase group to take bronze ahead of Mara Winter (Switzerland) and Talia Appleton (Australia).

Chladaňová and Isabella Holmgren escaped with Moors with 31 kilometres to go, after the pace set by Canada’s Ava Holmgren reduced the peloton.

Seeing Justyna Czapla (Germany) jump from a chase group the final time up Voie Camillien-Houde, Isabella Holmgren put in another acceleration to drop Moors, leaving the pair to continue on.

Holmgren tried repeatedly but unsuccessfully to drop Chladaňová in the final kilometres, but they were still together as they sped under the red kite, as the chase group was 35 seconds back.

“I definitely wanted this so much. In the last two months, I trained so hard for that, and with Isabella and Fleur, we did an amazing job, and I could finish it in a good sprint, so I'm very happy."

“I really tried to follow her and then out-sprint her, but it was such a long sprint, so I was super happy that I could have done it."

How it unfolded

With ten laps of a highly attritional course, the under-23 women kept a steady pace on the opening laps, letting the elevation do the work to make the race selective. A crash on the first lap took down half a dozen riders, including Unbound 100 winner Kylee Hanel (USA), who managed to chase back on during the second lap, though potential favourite Megan Arens (Netherlands) and Mebrhit Girmay (Eritrea) were forced to drop out of the race.

Wilma Antila (Finland) and Sofia Ungerová (Slovakia) launched an attack 112.7km to go and came through with eight laps to go with a lead of 30 seconds on one chaser,  Eliška Kvasničkova (Czechia) and 51 seconds on the peloton. After a long chase, Kvasničkova finally made it to the leaders with 97.5km to go, as the trio held a 1:43 lead on the peloton at the end of lap 3.

Another tangle with 90km to go took down Belgium's Lore De Schepper, who took a bike from Febe Jooris and had to chase back into the peloton. De Schepper made it back on quite quickly after a 5km chase, but it was not such good news for her teammate Jooris, who quit the race.

After a subdued start to the race, things kicked off pretty early on the fourth lap, with newly-crowned TT world champion Felicity Wilson-Haffenden (Australia) putting in a significant acceleration on one of the course's smaller climbs, and pulling out a selection of strong riders, including Imogen Wolff (Great Britain) and Alexandra Volstad (Canada).

However, after their misfortunes, Belgium missed out on this move, as did teams like Spain, Italy and the Netherlands, which meant that despite the break's strength, the peloton brought them back quite quickly on the Camilien-Houde. However, the injection of pace had shrunk the peloton and rapidly eaten into the original breakaway's gap, and they had only 30 seconds with 77km to go.

The next significant attack came from Morven Yeoman (Great Britain), who launched herself into the no-man's-land between the peloton and the bunch, but laid out Great Britain's intentions and put the responsibility of chasing onto the Aussies.

The peloton began to pour on the pressure on lap six, with Ungerova and Aintila the only riders remaining in front at the start/finish with just 29 seconds in hand.

Hanel was caught up in another crash with 44km to go along with Babette van der Wolf (Netherlands).

The race really began to implode on lap 8 of 10 as Australia pushed the pace and reeled in the breakaway on the climb. Then, Canada sent Ava Holmgren to the front with 37km to go to keep the pressure on. The peloton had been whittled down to around 20 riders at the front, while the pace was taking its toll behind, with riders steadily dropping off the back.

A mechanical dropped Nienke Vinke (Netherlands) from the group, as she had to wait a long time before her team car came to assist her, and she was out of contention.

A move from France was countered by Fleur Moors (Belgium), Isabella Holmgren (Canada) and Viktoria Chladaňová (Slovakia) making a dangerous three-rider attack with 31km to go.

With two laps to go, the trio had 17 seconds on the Australia-led peloton, down to 15 riders, as the pace and hard course were taking a toll, with more riders being shelled off the back, including Cat Ferguson (Great Britain), Ava Holmgren, and Paula Ostiz (Spain).

Australia, with three riders in the group, led the chase, but the gap had increased to 27 seconds by the start of the bell lap, while behind, Vinke was leading a chase group, a further 43 seconds back.

Justyna Czapla (Germany) attacked and split the chase group, closing the gap down to 15 seconds. That forced Holmgren to make the first move on Voie Camillien-Houde, but Chladaňová gritted her teeth and jumped on wheel.

With Bella Holmgren doing most of the work, the pair had 13 seconds on Moors with 10 kilometres to go, and 34 seconds to the second chase group.

The duo kept building their gap to 36 seconds while Moors was caught by the chasing group, leading to a battle for the bronze medal.

Holmgren forced Chladaňová to the front with 1km to go, but the Slovakian hugged the barriers and kept a watch over her right shoulder. The Canadian launched her sprint first, but Chladaňová was able to come around and power to the line for gold.

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