German Jonas Bokeloh takes junior road race world title

Jonas Bokeloh sprints to win the junior road race title at the 2014 Road World Championships in Spain

Jonas Bokeloh (Germany) won the junior men’s road world title ahead of Alexandr Kulikovskiy (Russia) and Peter Lenderink (Netherlands).

The victory continues what has already been a successful championships for Germany, following Lisa Brennauer’s win in the elite women’s time trial and Lennard Kamna’s in the junior time trial. The Germans now top the medal table.

Despite there being several attacks during the day, the race ultimately came down to a sprint between around thirty riders.

Bokeloh began his sprint just as the last surviving attackers of the day – Gino Maeder (Switzerland) and Stephen Kurianov (Russia) – were reeled in, just seconds away from the line. Initially using the slipstream of Edoardo Affini (Italy) – who finished in the unfortunate position in fourth – he powered past the Italian and held off Kulikovskiy and Lenderink to win by a comfortable margin.

Maeder and Kurianov were part of a group of seven that made it over the last accent of the final climb together. They possessed only a lender lead at the summit, prompting Maeder to make a solo move on the descent, opening up a gap of a few seconds.

Come the bottom of the descent only Kurianov remained in sight of him, and bridged the gap on the flat. For a moment it looked as though the pair would contest the gold and silver medals, until the onrushing peloton swallowed them up.

There were attacks aplenty throughout the day, with Adrien Costa (USA) and Bokeloh’s teammate Christian Koch (Germany) also having stints as the race’s leader. Even Bokeloh himself had been on the attack, as part of a break caught in the final lap.