Worlds: Julius Johansen wins junior men's road race

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Julius Johansen (Denmark) soloed in for an easy win in the Junior Men's race at the World Championships. The young Dane was followed over the finish line 51 seconds later by two Italians, Luca Rastelli, who took silver, and Michele Gazzoli, who placed third for bronze.

Johansen had joined a lead group on the penultimate lap of the closing circuit course, and soon jumped for the lead. He then used his time trial skills to build up a lead from 10 seconds with 12 kilometres to go to nearly a minute at the finish.

The 10-man chase group splintered along the way, with only Rastelli giving close chase. The gap increased dramatically in the final kilometres, but the chasers and peloton were determined to at least fight for the remaining podium spots. Rastelli was nearly caught by the field at the finish line, with his teammate Gazzoli coming in quickly for third.

"I can't believe it. I know I have a good shape," Johansen said. "Along the ways, there were a lot of guys in breakaways, but my teammates did an amazing job to keep it all together. I could do it at the finish. It was fantastic."

The race started with a 45 km long run-in to five laps of a circuit course. By the time the field entered that course, an escape group of seven had a gap of over a minute on the field. The escape gained and lost various riders as the gap continuously shrank.

Johansen jumped to join the escape on the penultimate lap, joining four others with only a very narrow gap. The young Dane then went for glory alone, with a lead of 10 seconds with 12 km to go, which he built up for the winning margin.

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