Remco Evenepoel comes back from early crash to win junior World Championship road race
The young Belgian showed his class and claimed the time trial - road race double
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The young sensation Remco Evenepoel put in a stunning performance in the junior World Championship road race to claim the double.
Evenepoel crashed early on in the stage but battled back from a huge deficit, before riding the final 20km solo.
The road race is the 18-year-old's second Worlds victory, after he stomped the competition in the junior time trial earlier in the week.
How it happened
The junior men battled it out on a 132.4km, finishing with two 23.8km laps of Innsbruck.
A challenging course, the juniors had to take on the maximum 14% gradient of Gnadenwald before taking on the 7km Igls climb twice.
Racing was frantic in the opening stages, with crashes and mechanicals causing chaos in the bunch.
>>>UCI Road World Championships 2018: dates, route, where to watch and more
Germany and the USA pushed hard on the front as the kilometres rapidly ticked away.
A big crash in the middle of the pack brought down a big number of riders with 72km remaining.
Race favourite Remco Evenepoel came down along and a number of British riders were caught up in the chaos.
The young star Evenepoel lost a big chunk of time while waiting for a bike change and was forced to chase back on alone.
Climbs over the course tore the field to pieces, with riders scattered across the road with 65km left to ride.
The Belgian Evenepoel caught a big group of chasing riders but didn’t take a breath, leading the group until he caught the bunch in front on a descent.
With 54km left, Evenepoel immediately jumped to the front of the main group to try and chase down the Italian Andrea Piccolo and German Marius Mayrhofer who had gone clear during the chase.
The chasers were caught before the first time the riders crested Igls, as Evenepoel kicked up the pace.
Heading into the final ascent of Igls, only the German Mayrhofer was able to stay with Evenepoel, who relentlessly rode on the front in an attempt to drop his rival.
With 19km left, the 18-year-old Belgian laid the final blow and escaped alone.
He rode across the line more than a minute ahead of second place
After battling all day and holding on to to Evenepoel's wheel, Mayrhofer faded in the final five kilometres but held off the two riders chasing behind.
The best placed British riders were Ben Tulett in 17th and Mason Hollyman in 20th, both 7-20 behind the winner.
Results
World Championships junior men's road race
1. Remco Evenepoel (BEL), in 3-03-49
2. Marius Mayrhofer (GER), at 1-25
3. Alessandro Fancellu (ITA), at 1-38
4. Alexandre Balmer (SUI)
5. Frederik Wandahl (DEN), at 3-20
6. Gabriele Benedetti (ITA)
7. Alois Charrin (FRA)
8. Kevin Vermaerke (USA)
9. Antonio Tiberi (ITA)
10. Sean Quinn (USA), at 3-25
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Alex Ballinger is editor of BikeBiz magazine, the leading publication for the UK cycle industry, and is the former digital news editor for CyclingWeekly.com. After gaining experience in local newsrooms, national newspapers and in digital journalism, Alex found his calling in cycling, first as a reporter, then as news editor responsible for Cycling Weekly's online news output, and now as the editor of BikeBiz. Since pro cycling first captured his heart during the 2010 Tour de France (specifically the Contador-Schleck battle) Alex covered three Tours de France, multiple editions of the Tour of Britain, and the World Championships, while both writing and video presenting for Cycling Weekly. He also specialises in fitness writing, often throwing himself into the deep end to help readers improve their own power numbers. Away from the desk, Alex can be found racing time trials, riding BMX and mountain bikes, or exploring off-road on his gravel bike. He’s also an avid gamer, and can usually be found buried in an eclectic selection of books.
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