Aggressive display from Irish men at Worlds but Alaphilippe is king | Video

Rory Townsend put in a great ride off the front of the race in the breakaway in the green of Ireland (Photo: Toby Watson)
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The Irish elite men’s team may have left the World Road Championships
today having failed to register a finish, but they did their best to animate
the race.

One of their number, Rory Townsend, was in the breakaway
until about the halfway point. And even when his escape group was caught the
26-year-old held his place at the front of the reduced peloton with ease.

He remained there trying to ensure he was on the right
side of any splits as the intensity ramped up with about 120km to go. However,
Townsend went from holding position at the front to coming to a near halt out
the back, holding his leg, after being hit with sudden cramps.

And once that occurred, his race was over. However, he
put in a great effort in the green of Ireland, having launched the first attack
of the day in the 268km title race.

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While that initial effort was not successful, Eddie Dunbar stepped up to throw in repeated digs for a time. The 25-year-old was clearly keen to try and make the breakaway on his return to racing after a bout of post-Olympics Covid-19.

Ryan Mullen enjoying the buzz of the massive crowd on the circuit in Leuven (Photo: Toby Watson)

Dunbar’s efforts were strong but he was closed down each
time. And when the breakaway finally went, it was Townsend in the move rather
than Dunbar.

In the eight-man main breakaway, Townsend was joined by: Pavel
Kochetkov (Russia), Patrick Gamper (Austria), Oskar Nisu (Estonia), Jose Tito
Hernandez (Columbia), Joel Burbano (Ecuador), Kim Magnusson (Sweden) and
Jambaljamts Sainbayar (Mongolia).

They shared the workload and their gap went to six
minutes though they were caught on the first lap of the Leuven circuit after a
40km period of very aggressive racing back in the bunch.

During that period, some of the biggest riders in the
race got away from the peloton in pursuit of the leaders. They included, among
others, Remco Evenepoel (Belgium), Kasper Asgreen (Denmark), DeClercq, Brandon
McNulty (USA), Arnaud Demare (France), Primož Roglič (Slovenia) and Magus Cort
(Denmark).

However, that group was caught around the same time as the breakaway and from that point the pressure never eased off. However, all three Irish riders – Townsend, Dunbar and Ryan Mullen – were among the large number of those riders who abandoned.

Eddie Dunbar threw in a number of attacks on his return to racing, though such a long race was always going to be a challenge for him after Covid-19 (Photo: Toby Watson)

As the remainder of the race continued to unfold over the
Flandrian and Leuven circuits, eventual winner Julian Alaphilippe and his French
team mates were the most effective with their aggression. Belgium also pressed
hard, but with Wout van Aert in its line-up, and racing on home roads, they
perhaps overplayed their hand.

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The first of Alaphilippe’s decisive attacks came with just
under 60km to go; that move splitting the remains of the peloton. A group of
about 20 initially went clear with 2½ laps of the Leuven circuit remaining.

While Alaphilippe attacked twice more on that circuit,
being brought back each time, he went for the third time on the climb of Sint
Antoniusberg with about 20km to go. That move was to prove the winning of the
race.

Behind him, a four-man group formed featuring Michael
Valgren (Denmark), Dylan van Baarle (Netherlands), Jasper Stuyven (Belgium) and
Neilson Powless (United States Of America); the latter putting in a coming of
age performance today.

For a long time those four were no more than 10 to 15 seconds behind the lone leader. And while Alaphilippe looked shattered, he simply continued to open the gap.

Julian Alaphilippe, the bike rider's bike rider, defends his world title on a day when all of Belgium hoped he wouldn't (Photo: Sean Rowe)

In the end he took a solo victory by 32 seconds from the
chase group; Van Baarle taking the sprint – more like a drag race of the
exhausted – for the silver, with Valgren taking bronze.

Stuyven could only manage 4th, meaning the host nation
were out of the medals in a race they were hotly topped to win. Powless was 5th
and just 17 seconds later Tom Pidcock (Great Britain) finished on his own for 6th,
having attacked the select group in the closing stages.

Zdeněk Štybar (Czech republic) finished solo in 7th
place, some 1:06 down on the winner. After him came the remains of the group
that Alaphilippe’s aggression had dragged clear with about 50km to go.

Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) won the sprint from that group, some 1:18 down, taking 8th place from Florian Senechal (France) and with Sonny Colbrelli (Italy) completing the top 10. Wout van Aert (Belgium) was 11th.

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