Adam Ward put in a great ride for Ireland at the World Championships in Belgium today; the 21-year-old spending most of the U23 road race up the road in the breakaway.
As the race progressed Ward’s group eventually split and
they were caught before Filippo Baroncini (Italy) stepped up with a blistering
attack on the penultimate climb, less than 6km from the finish.
The Italian – aged 21 years and already signed to
Trek-Segafredo – held off the remains of the peloton by just two seconds to win
the gold medal.
Best finisher for Ireland was Dillon Corkery in 87th at 9:16. Ben Healy, who was hit with illness earlier in the week, placed 101st at 10:21. But the day, from an Irish perspective, belonged to Ward and he eventually finished in 114th at 11:39 after his breakaway heroics.
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Ward got clear wit Gleb Karpenko (Estonia) and Logan
Currie (New Zealand) shortly after the race began, and following a 15-minute
delay for the start proper due the high number of crashes in the neutralised
zone.
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The first section of the race took the riders from
Antwerp to the circuit in Leuven, for 1½ laps of that circuit. After Ward and
his two breakaway companions had taken flight, there was plenty of aggression
in the bunch after them. However, the trio up front was soon established as the
main breakaway of the day.
By the time they got to the Leuven circuit they had five
minutes over the peloton, which continued to witness a very higher number of
crashes within its ranks. However, the climbs on that circuit ensured the
strong nations were battling to stay near the front, all of which upped the
pace.
That action in the bunch shaved about 1:30 off the breakaway’s advantage by time they went through the start-finish area for the first time. The race then left the Leuven circuit and headed for the Flandrien circuit, and it was there that Ward’s breakaway broke apart.
On the climb of the Smeysberg, Karpenko was dropped by Ward and Currie. And when the two leaders raced onto the climb of Moskesstraat, the Kiwi dropped Ward, who had put in a fantastic performance for about 100km.
As the breakaway was splitting up on those steep climbs, attacks began off the front of the peloton. that speed ensured Karpenko, Ward and then Currie were caught by what was a very thinned down peloton.
As the race then headed back to the Leuven circuit a
nine-rider group got clear and had just over 30 seconds by the time they passed
through the start-finish line with two laps remaining.
And while that group led for a lap, they were then
caught, resulting in several counter attackers going clear. But then Filippo
Baroncini (Italy) attacked on the penultimate climb, of Wjinpers. He got a gap
and charged into the finish to win.
He took the victory by just two seconds from the remains of the peloton; Biniam Girmay (Eritrea) claiming silver with Olav Kooij (Netherlands) winning the bronze.
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