Davis takes gold after aggressive race

Allan Davis continued Australia’s dominance of the Commonwealth Games in India by wining gold on the men’s road race at the end of a thrilling and very aggressive race on a flat circuit in the centre of Delhi.

Davis managed to jump across the decisive attack in the final kilometres and then used his sprinting speed to beat New Zealand’s Hayden Roulston and Scotland’s David Millar.

Fellow Australian Chris Sutton was fourth at four seconds, Northern Ireland’s David McCann was fifth at 11 seconds and Canadian Dominique Rollin was sixth at 22 seconds.

Mark Cavendish finished seventh, 59 seconds behind Davis, after being distanced during the final attacks. He made the decisive selection with three laps to go but with no Isle of Man teammates to help against the barrage of attacks from the Australians and Kiwi, he was worked over and eventually cracked after making several huge efforts to close gaps.

Surprisingly it was Davis’ first win of the 2010 season and went a long way to making up for finishing third in the world road race championships in Australia last Sunday.

Davis hugged teammate Chris Sutton after the finish, knowing that his contribution had been fundamental. Sutton was in the front move but then worked for Davis when they came together. Sutton jumped after Millar when the Scott made a late attack and then helped set up the sprint finish.

Davis’ victory means Australia has now won 14 of the 15 cycling medals so far contested at the Commonwealth games. Earlier on Sunday Rochelle Gilmore won gold in the women’s race.

The other nations have only the men’s and women’s time trial events on Wednesday to stop an Australian gold rush.

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