Alaphilippe defends world road race title
LEUVEN, Belgium, Sept. 26, (AP): Julian Alaphilippe confirmed his reputation as one of cycling’s greatest showmen with another bold display of attacking flair that helped him win a second straight gold medal at the road world championship on Sunday.
On a challenging course, the 29-year-old Frenchman relentlessly attacked and made his decisive move on a sharp climb to escape from a breakaway group with 17 kilometers (10.5 miles) to go.
Alaphilippe then took all the risks in the technical bends and short downhills scattered across the finale to retain the world champion’s rainbow jersey he claimed last year in Italy.
Alaphilippe ruined the Belgian fans’ hopes of seeing hot favorite Wout van Aert winning on home soil and received a few boos as he dashed toward the finish line. A few insults were also hurled his way.
Dutch rider Dylan Van Baarle finished runner-up, 32 seconds off the pace, ahead of Michael Valgren of Denmark.
The 268.3-kilometer course starting in Antwerp and finishing in Leuven took riders across the cycling-mad Flanders region of Belgium, with thousands of fans lining the roads. The route switched multiple times between two circuits featuring a myriad of punchy short climbs and several cobbled sectors suiting one-day classics specialists.
The Belgians were the pre-race favorites with a team featuring the versatile van Aert and rising star Remco Evenepoel alongside experienced allrounders used to the attritional classic races held in Belgium every year.
Known as “The Tractor” for his huge power input, Belgian Tim Declercq and teammate Yves Lampaert prepared the ground for van Aert, taking turns at the front in a bid to create splits and drop as many rivals as possible. The strategy paid off as a long list of top riders pulled out and the main pack was reduced to 17 contenders in the finale.
The race was marred by a crash involving a trio of top riders in its early stages when Matteo Trentin of Italy, former world champion Mads Pedersen and Italian Davide Ballerini hit the ground with 186 kilometers left. Pedersen was looking behind his back to call his team car when Ballerini and Trentin collided and could not avoid their crash.
The three riders were all able to resume racing but later abandoned.