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U23 Men's Road RaceThe local time in Plouay is |
Plouay: Circuit Jean Yves-Perron, 169.8 km (12 laps)Main Page Route Information and start list Complete Live report12:30 CET They're under way in the men's U23 road race, 12 laps of the Jean Yves-Perron circuit. The conditions are slightly better than yesterday - puffy clouds, cool, windy with a chance of a shower later. Up front straight away are the Belgians and French. Mick Rogers (Aus) looked pretty determined in the pits area this morning. 12:55 CET - km 14.1 There was an attack by a couple of riders on the first lap, Dutchman Remmert Wielinga, Erci Leblacher (Fra) and Lars Breiseth (Nor); however they were brought back. The bunch pass through the start/finish line as a complete group led by Ronny Scholz (Ger) and Graziano Gasparre (Ita). One rider has already abandoned: Ashley Lambert (Zim) Lap one time: 19:19 (43.95 km/h) 13:13 CET - km 28.2 On the second lap at the base of the climb, Tom Southam (GBr) attacked and only one rider, Mikhail Andreyev (Kaz) followed but too late. He had a 20 second break at the end of the lap, with the peloton moving swiftly in fairly good conditions. Lap two time: 20:06
(42.09 km/h) 13:34 CET - km 42.3 Tom Southam has extended his lead to a minute and a half at the end of three laps. The peloton is content to stay together at the moment, as there is plenty of time to chase. The Norwegian and French teams are setting the pace. Lap three time:
20:03 (42.19 km/h) 13:57 CET - km 56.4 With eight laps to go, Southam has three minutes and is riding at 42.4 kilometres an hour. An Irishman, Dermot Nally counters from the bunch with Spaniard Constantino Zaballa Gutierrez up the Cote de Lézot, the first climb of the fifth lap. All the top riders are seen at the front of the peloton, including Michael Rogers (Aus), Ronny Scholz and Torsten Heikmann (Ger), Jurgen Van Goolen (Bel) and Stefan Adamsson (Swe). The pace seems to be lifting now. Lap four time: 20:29
(41.30 km/h) 14:15 CET - km 70.5 With seven laps to go, Southam's lead has been cut to 1:30, mainly through an attack midway through lap 5. Andrey Kashechkin (Kaz) instigated the move, and he was joined by Mick Rogers (Aus), Jonas Ljungblad (Swe), and Alwyn Scheepers (RSA). The four were caught at the line by some hard chasing from the Dutch and the Italians. Lap five time: 20:49
(40.64 km/h) 14:36 CET - km 84.6 We're at the halfway point now. On the first climb on lap 6, Daniel Spence (RSA) attacked and he was joined by Robin Sharman (GBr) and Eric Le Blacher (Fra). Those three bridged up to Southam and managed a 1:40 lead on the Cote de Ty-Marec. However, the Russian Dmitri Semov rode hard all the way up the final climb and reduced the gap to 47 seconds by the end of the lap. Prominent at the front are the Russians, French and Germans. There is a crash behind: Israel Nunez Baticon (Spa) and Thomas Eriksen (Den) come down. Lap six time: 21:03
(40.19 km/h) 14:56 CET - km 90.0 On the seventh lap, the early attacker Tom Southam was dropped on first climb leaving three in the lead. The peloton were hovering at 35 seconds, but were not willing to close down the gap and it went out to 1:25 on the Cote de Ty-Marec. The chase is being led by Yuriy Krivtcov (Ukr), Jurgen Van Goolen (Bel), and Stefano Guerrini (Ita). Germany has not done anything and the Italian team have been fairly quiet, until... On lap eight, there is a big attack by Lorenzo Bernucci (Ita), a teammate of last year's champion, Giordani. He is bridging up the leaders very fast. Behind, it's one long line - panic in the peloton. Lap seven time:
20:20 (41.6 km/h) 15:19 CET - km 113.2 Four laps to go: Bernucci got across just after the feed to the three leaders (Sharman, Spence and Le Blacher. Then, three more got across: Alexandr Kolobnev (Rus), Thomas Voeckler (Fra) and Henrik Simper (Den), however Robin Sharman was dropped. The chase is led by David O'Loughlin (Irl) with the peloton about 20 seconds behind the leaders. Swiss Fabian Cancellara attacks to bridge to the leading 6, and he is succeeding. Alexandr Kolobnev (Rus) attacks at the top of the first climb on lap 9. Australian Allan Davis is trying to bridge up to the six leaders and is about 15 seconds behind them. Lap
eight time: 20:03 (42.19 km/h) 15:36 CET - km 127.3 Lorenzo Bernucci (Ita), Fabian Cancellara (Swi), Alexandr Kolobnev (Rus), Thomas Voeckler (Fra)m Henrik Simper (Den) have a 15 second lead on three riders: Graziano Gasparre (Ita), Björn Schröder (Ger) and Mikhail Timochine (Rus), with the peloton about another 10 seconds back. Eric Le Blacher (Fra) was dropped, and Allan Davis got caught by all the attacks on the hill with Jurgen Van Goolen (Bel) doing most of the work. Halfway up the Cote de Lézot on lap 10, Alexandr Kolobnev (Rus) attacks but is joined by Bernucci and Gasparre. Bernucci counter-attacks as the peloton finally bridges up. Lap nine time: 19:25
(43.57 km/h) 15:46 CET - km 135 At the feed zone at the base of the the Ty-Merrec cote, Bernucci has about 15 seconds and riding well, but the peloton (still numbering about 60) will probably not let him get too far. There are still two and a half laps to go in the race. 15:56 CET - km 141.5 There are two laps to go now and we have a break of eleven that was started on the hill during lap 10. Lorenzo Bernucci (Ita), Franco Pellizotti (Ita), Michael Albasini (Swi), Martin Elmiger (Swi), Frederik Willems (Bel), Marius Sabaliauskas (Ltu), Dmitri Gainitdinov (Rus), Evgeni Petrov (Rus), Israel Nunez Baticon (Spa), Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) and Brad Davidson (Aus). These riders have about 20 seconds. Now, over the Cote de Lézot, Petrov has attacked and is flying while the others are looking at each other. Lap ten time: 18:50
(44.92 km/h) 16:04 CET - km 148 They're climbing the Ty-Merrec for the penultimate time. Petrov is looking great and has about 20 seconds to Brad Davidson and Lorenzo Bernucci. Franco Pellizotti is trying to come up to them, but Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) chases him down. Popovych is actually Bernucci's teammate in Italy (Vellutex). In fact, the whole front of the race is similar to an U23 race in Tuscany: Petrov rides for San Pellegrino, Davidson rides for Brunero (but has a Saeco contract for next year). 16:17 CET - km 158 Less than one lap to go, and the Russian Evgeny Petrov is looking great for a second gold medal. After averaging over 46 km/h for the last lap, he now has 40 seconds to a group of 4: Lorenzo Bernucci (Ita), Marius Sabaliauskas (Ltu), Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) and Brad Davidson (Aus, with Dmitri Gainitdinov (Rus), and Graziano Gasparre (Ita) trying to bridge. The peloton is at 1'15. Lap eleven time:
18:12 (46.48 km/h) 16:27 CET - km 169.8 Evgeny Petrov wins - just. Second is Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) at 3 seconds, and third is Bernucci (Ita). They took off on the last hill and almost caught Petrov. But, the Russian held them off to take his second gold of the championships. What a ride! There is a bad crash in the peloton during the field sprint, one of the Italians and Khazakhs has gone down. Kim Kirchen of Luxembourg wins it and takes fourth, as all the other breakaways were caught on the last hill. Marius Sabaliauskas (Ltu) was fifth and Brad Davidson (Aus) sixth. Final lap time:
18:22 (46.06 km/h) Results 1 Evgeni Petrov (Rus) 3.56.51 (43.015 km/h) 2 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) 0.04 3 Lorenzo Bernucci (Ita) 4 Kim Kirchen (Lux) 0.14 5 Marius Sabaliauskas (Ltu) 0.15 6 Brad Davidson (Aus) 0.17 7 Allan Davis (Aus) 0.33 8 Graziano Gasparre (Ita) 9 Stefan Adamsson (Swe) 10 Stefano Guerrini (Ita) 11 Martin Elmiger (Swi) 12 Dmitri Gainitdinov (Rus) 13 Jurgen Van Goolen (Bel) 14 Björn Schröder (Ger) 15 Pavel Zerzan (Cze) 16 Frank Schleck (Lux) 17 Mikhail Timochine (Rus) 18 Bernhard Eisel (Aut) 19 Jose Rodrigues (Por) 20 Aliaksandr Kuchynski (Blr) |