Sagan storms to solo victory at the World Championships

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Peter Sagan (Slovakia) stormed to a solo victory in the elite men's road race at the World Championships on Sunday. He made his winning move over the steep, 19 per cent climb up 23rd Street with roughly three kilometres to go, went into a tuck position on his bike down the descent, and then held onto a handful of seconds on the final climb.

Sagan managed to hold off the frantic chase from behind on the final ascent to cross the finish line with his first world title ahead of Michael Matthews (Australia) and Ramunas Navardauskas of Lithuania by just three seconds.

"I think it's the biggest victory of my career, and I'm very happy because I sacrificed a lot these last three weeks after the Vuelta.
It's unbelievable for me," Sagan said.

"Today I was just waiting, waiting, I had my brother with me .. my teammates were always with me. If something happend they were always there. It was a little bit crazy in the last laps, and I thought everyone has to be tired. I gave everything on last cobblestone climb and then it was full gas until the finish.

"I knew if the group caught me, I was very tired for the sprint. But it was the right attack for me. I saw also a lot of comments from people that I am not good for a long race like this. But now I have this jersey for all next year."

A race-long breakaway kicked off from the gun by local hero Ben King (USA), together with Conor Dunne (Ireland), Ivan Stevic (Serbia), Sung Park Baek (Korea), and then joined by Jesse Sergent (New Zealand), Carlos Alzate (Colombia), Andriy Khripta (Ukraine) and Serghei Tvetcov (Romania). They gained over four minutes but were kept in check by the Dutch, or rather, Jos van Emden, who led the race for some 150km.

The breakaway was caught on the way to five laps to go, setting up an aggressive finale.

With three laps to go, the race heated up with a decisive late-race move ignited by Ian Stannard (Great Britain) over the 23rd Street climb. Bauke Mollema (Netherlands) was the first to react followed by Tom Boonen (Belgium), Andrey Amador (Costa Rica), defending champion Michal Kwiatkowski (Poland), Dani Moreno (Spain) and Elia Viviani (Italy).

The select group started out with a small lead with two laps to go, but stretched it out to 30 seconds.

Australia and Germany led the frantic chase from behind - neither team had a rider represented in the breakaway - with Australia setting up the race for sprinter Michael Matthews and Germany working for John Degenkolb. The eight riders lasted through the penultimate lap with Boonen leading the way into Libby Hill, smiling as the roar of the crowd made it feel more like Flanders and less like Virginia.

But the breakaway was caught after the 23rd street climb with just over a lap to go, setting up a slew of attacks.

Guillaume Boivin (Canada), Jarlinson Pantano from Colombia, Taylor Phinney (USA) and Kanstantsin Siutsou (Belarus) were the next to go, and their move lasted until 36km to go, just before the ascent of Libby Hill heading into two laps to go.

The next move to escape included Bauke Mollema, Tom Boonen, Andrey Amador, defending champion Michal Kwiatkowski, Ian Stannard, Dani Moreno and Elia Viviani, but despite Boonen's strong surge up the Libby Hill climb on the penultimate lap, they were caught before the finish line.

Tom Dumoulin (Netherlands) led the peloton through the finish with one lap to go and pushed the pace so hard that a gap opened behind and the only rider able to stick to his wheel was Viacheslav Kuznetsov (Russia).

The Italians were responsible for bringing back the flurry of late-race attacks that included a move from American Tyler Farrar and Kanstantsin Siutsou (Belarus), who squeezed out an advantage of 10 seconds with seven kilometres to go.

The pair were caught at the bottom of Libby Hill Park as the Italian and Belgian teams blasted passed them, followed by the French and German teams.

Zdenek Stybar was the first to launch his attack on the cobbles followed by John Degenkolb (Germany) and Belgium’s Greg Van Avermaet.

A select group emerged at the top of Libby Hill that also included Niki Terpstra (Nethelrands), but they were caught by the base of the 19 per cent 23rd Street climb.

Sagan made a powerful move on the steep ascent, gaining a small gap over the top. As he went into a deep tuck position on the descent he chipped out a few seconds gap ahead of the chasers Van Avermaet and Terpstra.

But Sagan's superior skills in cornering proved to be the decisive moment for the Slovakian - and the three seconds he had at the finish line were gained in the two very fast turns before the final climb.

Although Rigoberto Uran (Colombia) attacked out of the field and looked set to run down Sagan, he was marked by stronger sprinters and gambled to wait.

The gamble did not pay off, and Sagan sailed in and thrilled the crowd with an unbridled celebration.

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