Road World Championships

World Championship men’s RR | Bergen, Norway | September 24

If there was anyone with the class to bring home an unprecedented three men’s rainbow jerseys in three years, it was Peter Sagan. Having upstaged Alexander Kristoff on home turf in a frantic bunch sprint, the enigmatic Slovak revealed he was convinced the title had disappeared up the road with Julian Alaphilippe in the finale.

It was only in the last kilometre as the race came back together, he said, that he realised he still had a chance.

Kristoff having taken silver, third spot on the podium went to Australia’s Michael Matthews, who couldn’t have looked more cheesed off post-race, as he rued chasing the breaks on the final climb and blunting his sprint.

Just behind the medallists Britain’s Ben Swift sprinted to a hard-earned fifth place following an admirable team display by an inexperienced Team GB — nearly half the riders had never ridden a senior Worlds before.

Sagan dedicated the victory to his friend Michele Scarponi, who was killed by a van while in training earlier this year and declared his win “very nice”.

Sagan remained anonymous for much of the race, with a 10-man early break forged by Ireland’s Connor Dunne setting the scene in the first half. While the gap reached 10 minutes at one point, with four laps of the Bergen circuit to go the race was back together.

This lit the touch paper on more bunch fireworks and the next time up the mid-lap climb of Salmon Hill, a tidy eight-man group featuring Tim Wellens (Belgium) and Jarlinson Pantano (Colombia) prised itself clear.

They were never allowed a huge lead, and were caught on the penultimate lap. France left nobody in any doubt as to their intentions as Tony Gallopin put in a concerted attack. From the series of chase-downs that ensued, Alaphilippe emerged the strongest, gaining a gap with Italy’s Gianni Moscon.

It looked dangerous but proved short-lived, as the bunch stormed off the climb to thwart their efforts, with Kristoff’s early sprint being undone by the old, and new, world champion.