The Worlds was nearly 260km but Conor Dunne and Ryan Mullen got up the road almost from the gun (All photos by Sean Rowe)
Nicolas Roche was the sole Irish finisher of the elite men’s race at the World Road Championships in Innsbruck, Austria, today.
Ryan Mullen and Conor Dunne spent the early part of the race up the road in the breakaway. The eleven-man group they were in gained a huge 19 minutes at one point.
And though the French were the first to take to the front of the peloton and reduce the gap a little, it remained north of 15 minutes for a long time.
In the end the escape would be overhauled and the race won by Alejandro Valverde; the 38-year-old who has served a doping ban taking the world title for the first time.
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The Spanish rider would win a four-up sprint from Romain Bardet (France), Michael Woods (Canada) and Tom Dumoulin (Netherlands).
Dan Martin was jettisoned on the main climb on the Innsbruck circuit with just over 50km remaining.
His wife recently gave birth to twins and he had left the Vuelta early as a result. His lack of racing of late meant he was not as fancied for today as he would normally be on a climbers’ course.
Roche would finish 67th, in a small group 14:23 down on a day when just 76 completed the race.
And both Conor Dunne and Ryan Mullen would abandon having spent about 150km up the road.
Attacking began immediately the 258.5km race started and within 10km Mullen was off the front as two small groups merged to form a breakaway.
Dunne would then get across and his making the juncture with one other rider made for 11 out front.
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With the two Irish riders in the escape were: Daniil Fominykh (Kazakhstan), Vegard Stake Laengen (Norway), Rob Britton (Canada), Jacques Janse Van Rensburg (South Africa), Ilia Koshevoy (Belarus), Tobias Ludvigsson (Sweden), Kasper Asgreen (Denmark), Karel Hnik (Czech Republic) and Laurent Didier (Luxembourg).
And as they hit the first climb of the day with 60km raced the breakaway had 15½ minutes on the peloton. Some 10km later they had added another three minutes.
Ahead of them when they reached the 23.9km circuit in Innsbruck was seven laps, with the testing 7.8km ascent of Igls each time.
The feared Höttinger Höll climb, 3.2km in length with gradients of 28 per cent in places, was added on the final circuit and it proved decisive.
On the fourth passage of the Igls climb Dunne’s and Mullen’s time in the escape came to an end as they dropped back.
By that point the breakaway’s lead was down to eight minutes. The rest of the race was characterised by the bunch continuing to get smaller, the breakaway also whittling down and the gap between the two reducing gradually.
However, it was not until 22km to go that the last of the escapees were caught; Asgreen and Laengen the last men standing.
By that point Dan Martin’s race was over, having been distanced by the bunch on the climb with just over 50km remaining.
Roche would stay in the group for longer but he had lost his place in the now very small peloton by the time it crested Igls for the final time and raced towards the Höttinger Höll.
Michael Valgren (Denmark) would attack before that climb. But he was caught on the ascent as an elite group pulled clear.
It contained Alejandro Valverde (Spain), Gianni Moscon (Italy), Romain Bardet (France) and Michael Woods (Canada).
However, Moscon would be dropped before the top. And he was caught and passed by Tom Dumoulin (Netherlands), who caught the three leaders in the closing kilometres.
But the effort of the chase took too much out of Dumoulin. And it was Valverde who won from Bardet and Woods to leave pro cycling with a controversial and badly tainted champion for the next 12 months.
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