The World Road Bike Championship closed this morning (Sunday) with further proof that, at the moment, Ramko Avenpol is the best rider in the world. The Belgian went on the attack 35 km to the end of the course in Woolgong, Australia, with only the Kazakh Alexey Lutsenko managing to stick to him for a short time. The Belgian won by a huge margin of 2:21 minutes before the French Christophe Laporte and the Australian Michael Matthews, who won the sprint for the other medals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OVUeRjHvZY
An unusual achievement for Ramko Avenpol
Owenpool, who won the Valletta España two weeks ago and at the beginning of the championship finished third in the time trial (RTC), is the first rider since Greg LeMond in 1989 to win the Grand Tour and the World Championship in the same year, and the second in history to win both the Under-23 World Championship and the Senior World Championship An achievement that so far belonged only to LeMond. At the age of 22, it’s scary to think what the future holds for him, but there is no doubt that the “rainbow shirt” (which is awarded to every champion and world champion) in which he will ride this year suits him very well.
Van der Pol’s arrest
The bizarre event of the championship took place the night before the race, when the Dutchman Matteo van de Pol, one of the candidates for the win, was arrested after confronting the hotel where the team was staying with children who disturbed his sleep. He was only released at 4am and retired shortly after the start of the race.
The first lady of the bicycle
The Belgian’s impressive achievement is dwarfed only by the women’s champion, Annemick van Veltenwhich completed a year that was unprecedented in history. The Dutchwoman, who will celebrate 40 in two weeks, won this year’s Giro Donna, the renewed Tour de France and the Madrid Challenge – the shortened version of the Valetta, and Liege-Baston-Liege. Yesterday she added a second win in the World Championship, when she went on the attack with a kilometer to go. Belgian Lotte Kopecky and Italian Silvia Persico completed the podium. New Zealand’s Niamh Fisher Black finished in 12th place along with the rest of the leading group, and was crowned under-23 champion.
went on the attack with a kilometer to go. Annemick van Velten | Photo: shutterstock
Van Velten’s teammate from the Netherlands, Ellen van Dijk, defended her title in the time trial on the first day of the championship, beating Australian Grace Brown and Swiss Marlene Reusser by 13 seconds. Unlike the women, there was a big surprise in the men’s race, when the Norwegian Tobias Foss was three seconds ahead of the Swiss Stephan Kong and nine seconds ahead of Avenpol.
King Kong and Reusser got some compensation when they won gold in the mixed time trial, ahead of Italy and Australia. The Dutch were the leading candidates for the win, but Van Velten crashed right at the start and killed their chances. She broke her elbow, but that didn’t stop her from winning individual gold three days later.