The junior road race at the World Championships split to pieces in Innsbruck today. Ben Healy, above, was best of the four-man Irish team (All photos by Sean Rowe)
It was a day on which crashes intervened but one man reigned; Remco Evenepoel of Belgium absolutely motoring to the world junior title today.
The 18-year-old former international soccer player had already won the junior TT in Innsbruck this week. And when the 126.8km road race begun today, his was the name on everyone’s lips.
And though he was caught out badly by the huge crash with just over 70km remaining, he overcame a two-minute deficit to the front of the race.
And when he got back on track; the race was for silver and bronze. It was almost predestined he would win; and win he did.
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Marius Mayrhofer (Germany) stayed with him longest, but even he succumbed with 18km remaining; Evenepoel powering away on an incline for an excellent solo win.
The German hung on for a well deserved silver 1:25 back. And just seven seconds later; Alessandro Fancellu (Italy) out-sprinted Alexandre Balmer (Switzerland) for bronze.
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Breandán Flannagan and Archie Ryan in action in the green of Ireland in Austria.
The best of the rest were another two minutes down; or 3:20 off the winner, on a day when the gaps were massive.
From an Irish perspective, Ben Healy was best; putting in a very solid shift for 25th at 10:47.
Breandán Flannagan was next, at 58th some 18:45 down. Then came Archie Ryan in 80th, at 24:27.
Aaron Doherty was a non-finisher for Ireland. Some 84 riders finished; stretched over 28 minutes on a day when 73 riders didn’t make it.
Flannagan was the only one of the Irish riders who crashed in the big pile-up. However, Ryan and Doherty had to unclip as a result of crashes.
The race consisted of an 84km undulating run into two laps of a 24km finishing circuit; with two climbs on those laps.
Healy managed to stay with the whittled down peloton until close to the top of the main climb on the first of the two finishing loops.
It was a good showing on a day when the Belgian winner was unstoppable and the field was shattered under the pressure of a really aggressive race.
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