Lutsenko wins under-23 Worlds road race in Valkenburg

Alexey Lutsenko gave Kazakhstan its first ever Under 23 men’s world road race title with an audacious but perfectly timed sprint along the barriers.

Lutsenko let other riders start their sprints early and then came from behind to hit the line first at exactly the right time. France’s Bryan Coquard also came up late to take second, with Belgium’s Tom Van Asbroeck taking third. Hugo Houle (Canada) was fourth and Luke Pibernik (Slovenia) was fifth.

As expected, the final climb of the Cauberg, just 1.5km from the finish, sparked attacks but Lutsenko was able to get back to the front and fight for victory.

Lutsenko was overjoyed to win the world title. Bryan Coquard was not so happy to lose by less than a wheel.

“The dominant feeling is one of disappointment, even it’s nice to have silver at least,” he said.

“(Teammate) Warren Barguil was fantastic, he helped to pace me back on after the Cauberg all the way up to the last kilometre, but maybe I needed someone in those next 500 metres. I put in a long sprint and went 350 metres from the line. I went then because I found and opening and I was worried if I waited that I would get blocked in.

A fast and furious race

As always with Under 23 world championship road races, the 177km race was fast and furious, with riders attacking and chasing each other throughout its duration.

Tomohiro Kinoshita of Japan, Jesper Dahlstrom of Sweden and Australia’s Michael Freiberg. formed the early move, opening an eight-minute gap. They were chased down and eight riders later joined them to create an 11-rider front group after five laps, before a general regrouping. Other attacks came but the peloton responded time and time again during the next three laps.

Italy’s Andrea Fedi was especially aggressive and he and four other riders managed to form a breakaway with a lap and a half to go. The five were: Andrea Fedi (Italy), Lukas Postlberger (Austria), Eduardo Sepulveda (Argentina), Anton Vorobyev (Russia) and Pawel Bernas (Poland).

As the bell rang at the finish line, signalling a lap to go, the quintet had a 15-second lead but it was not going to be enough. The peloton quickly closed the gap and then the Kazakhstan team also chased down a few solo attack on the back of the circuit.

The final climb of the Cauberg would be decisive and confirm if this year’s world championships are better suited to the attackers and climbers, or for the sprinters who opted to wait for the dash to the finish.

Austria’s Georg Preidler and Australia’s Jay McCarthy were the first to attack on the Cauberg and got a gap as the gradient eased. They were joined by a handful of other riders and for an instant they seemed to have a chance of going all the way to the finish. However some of the riders hesitated and refused to work. That slowed the attack, hit their determination and allowed the chasers to close the gap. Although the Cauberg left many struggling, 52 riders made it into the front group and drove towards the finish.

The Belgian team led-out the sprint but they went a little too early into the headwind - it was going to be a hectic sprint. Tom Van Asbroeck (Belgium) came through and probably thought he was going to win after hitting the front in the final 100 metres. But Lutsenko came past him on his left and then Coquard came past him on the right of the road to take first and second.

Lutsenko was overjoyed to win but will not wear the rainbow jersey in 2013. Instead he will join the pro ranks, as the heir to Alexandre Vinokourov’s crown of best Kazakhstan rider in cycling.

“You never know what can happen, many things are possible in a career,” he said when asked if he was ready to take over from Vinokourov.

“All season I’ve tried to stay in good condition to get wins and last month I signed a deal with Pro Team Astana. I hope I can continue to ride well as a professional next season and maybe even get a win along the way.”