Antonio Tiberi overcomes unlucky start to seal remarkable men's junior time trial world title
The Italian had a mechanical as he rolled off the start ramp, needing a bike change on the first corner
Antonio Tiberi won the men's junior time trial at the Yorkshire Road World Championships 2019 despite his ride being marred by misfortune.
The Italian beat the Netherlands' Enzo Leijnse by eight seconds, after Tiberi had suffered a mechanical in the first few metres of his ride, requiring a bike change on the first corner of the course.
He then had to fight through traffic on the road back into Harrogate, swerving round a team car as he made up for lost time to take up his place in the hot seat.
The 18-year-old rode a super fast second half of the 27.6km-long course, holding off the 31 riders who started after him.
Enzo Leijnse took silver while the German Marco Brenner, who set an infernal place on the first half of the course, finished 13 seconds down taking bronze.
The penultimate rider to set off, the American Quinn Simmons, looked to be the best last chance for someone to unseat Tiberi, being 20 seconds ahead of the Italian at the halfway stage. However, this figure was influenced by Tiberi's early mishap, and over the second half Simmons failed to keep pace with the Italian's speedy final few kilometres.
The European junior time trial champion Andrea Piccolo (Italy) was the last rider to set off and looked to be nearly keeping pace after 20km, but then he also faded as Tiberi's title was confirmed as his compatriot crossed the line in sixth place.
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Two Brits, Leo Hayter and Oscar Nilsson-Julien recorded promising top 10 rides, finishing eighth and ninth respectively.
Result
UCI Road World Championships 2019, men's junior time trial: Harrogate to Harrogate (27.6km)
1. Antonio Tiberi (Italy), in 38-28
2. Enzo Leijnse (Netherlands), at eight seconds
3. Marco Brenner (Germany), at 13s
4. Quinn Simmons (USA), at 20s
5. Michel Hessmann (Germany), at 28s
6. Andrea Piccolo (Italy), at 30s
7. Lars Boven (Netherlands), at 44s
8. Leo Hayter (Great Britain), at 51s
9. Oscar Nilsson-Julien (Great Britain, at 1-00
10. Finn Fisher-Black (New Zealand), at 1-06
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Jonny was Cycling Weekly's Weekend Editor until 2022.
I like writing offbeat features and eating too much bread when working out on the road at bike races.
Before joining Cycling Weekly I worked at The Tab and I've also written for Vice, Time Out, and worked freelance for The Telegraph (I know, but I needed the money at the time so let me live).
I also worked for ITV Cycling between 2011-2018 on their Tour de France and Vuelta a España coverage. Sometimes I'd be helping the producers make the programme and other times I'd be getting the lunches. Just in case you were wondering - Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen had the same ham sandwich every day, it was great.