U23 Men's Road Race

Friday, October 13, 2000, 12:30

The local time in Plouay is

Plouay - Plouay, 169.8 km (12 laps)

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Bear bites twice as Petrov captures road race title

By Tim Maloney, cyclingnews.com correspondent

Petrov's second
Photo: © AFP

Although gli azzurri of Italy tried to keep the Russian bear under control In today's U23 men's road race, a gutsy Evgeni Petrov escaped from his cage with 26 km to race and time trialed to a dramatic win.

"I knew it was the right moment; I thought we were being caught and so I attacked. Now I know it was right!," the Russian double world champ told cyclingnews after the race.

Petrov thus captured his second world title of the week after having dominated the U23 men's TT race on Tuesday. Runner-up Yaroslav Popoyvych of Ukraine and bronze medalist Renzo Bernucci of Italy, teammates on the powerful Vellutex U23 squad in Italy worked hard to catch Petrov on the last lap, but he was just too strong for the chasers and rode in for the win just a few seconds ahead of the fast-closing chasers.

In fact, the 10 of the 12 riders in today's U23 race compete in Italy on Italian teams, including Australians Brad Davidson, who had a solid ride in the final break for 6th, and Allan Davis, who won the uphill bunch sprint for 7th.

It was a breezy and sunny fall day in Plouay, and at the end of lap 1, UK rider Tom Southam made a solo effort that lasted for 5 laps and got almost 3'00 lead at one point, but Southam was caught by a chase group including his UK teammate Sharman, Kolubnov of Russia, Le Blacher of France and Spence of South Africa.

This quartet had a 40" margin over the chasing peloton lead by Russia at the midway point, and after Southam was caught, the chase slowed and the break trio gained some time. But not enough, as Renzo Bernucci of Italy attacked on the first climb of the Cote de Lézot with 5 laps to go and bridged across the 1' gap in half a lap. Then, three others bridged behind Bernucci; Kolubnov of Russia, Voeckler of France and Simper of Denmark.

The powerful Italian and fresh newcomers quickly made an impact on the chasing peloton as the chase tempo behind increased. With 4 laps to go, Cancellera of Switzerland made the same move that Bernucci had the lap before and blasted across in an impressive move. But there was no way that the bunch, especially the determined Belgians, were going to let this group get away. By the Cote de Lézot with 3 to go, Bernucci, Cancellera, Kolubnov, Voeckler and Simper were almost caught by the chase. Bernucci went again and got another gap, but Sabaliauskas of Lithuania made the effort to bring him back.

Once on the long drag of the Cote de Ty Marec with 2.5 laps to race, Sabaliauskas made the decisive move with a tough attack. Suddenly 11 riders had a gap and it looked like a major move. Along with the lanky Lithuanian, Bernucci was there again, as well as Pellizotti of Italy, Albasini and Elmiger of Switzerland, Fred Willems of Belgium, Gainitdinov and Petrov of Russia, Nunez of Spain, Popovych of Ukraine and Davidson of Australia.

Evgeny Petrov
Photo: © AFP

As this group hit the finish line with two laps to go, they had a little over a half minute lead on the chasing peloton. Bernucci had great legs today, but when Petrov made the decisive move on the Cote de Lézot, he caught the Italian at the wrong moment. "I had just finished a hard effort, and there was nothing I could do," said a disappointed Bernucci afterwards.

Indeed, that was the case. Petrov was so fast on his own that he was untouchable, riding the second to last lap at over 46 km/h average speed! Despite a last lap surge that brought Vellutex teammates Bernucci and Popovych within a few seconds of Petrov, the Russian had what it took to ride across the finish line with arms raised For his second rainbow jersey of the week!

Results

1 Evgeni Petrov (Rus)             3.58.06 (43.015 km/h)
2 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr)            0.03
3 Lorenzo Bernucci (Ita)
4 Kim Kirchen (Lux)                  0.14
5 Marius Sabaliauskas (Ltu)
6 Brad Davidson (Aus)
7 Allan Davis (Aus)                  0.32
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 David Sipocz (Hun)
17 Frank Schleck (Lux)
18 Mikhail Timochine (Rus)
19 Bernhard Eisel (Aut)
20 Jose Rodrigues (Por)
21 Aliaksandr Kuchynski (Blr)
22 Sergio Paulinho (Por)
23 Torsten Hiekmann (Ger)
24 Andy Cappelle (Bel)
25 Kristoffer Ingeby (Swe)
26 Rafael Bayer (Lie)
27 Ralph Scherzer (Aut)
28 Mark Roland (Aus)
29 Yuriy Krivtcov (Ukr)
30 Uros Silar (Slo)
31 Christian Pfannberger (Aut)
32 Alexandr Kazlov (Blr)
33 Dmitri Semov (Rus)
34 Nicolas Inaudi (Fra)
35 Gilberto Martins (Por)
36 Ronald Mutsaars (Ned)
37 David Arato (Hun)
38 Nicola Gavazzi (Ita)
39 Jonas Ljungblad (Swe)
40 Alexandru Sabalin (Mda)
41 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa)
42 David Arroyo Duran (Spa)
43 Mateusz Mroz (Pol)
44 Russel Downing (GBr)
45 Fabian Wegmann (Ger)
46 Tobias Lergard (Swe)
47 Andris Reiss (Lat)
48 Scott Davis (Aus)
49 Ronny Scholz (Ger)
50 Ondrej Fadrny (Cze)
51 Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz)
52 Alexandr Kolobnev (Rus)
53 Michael Larsen (Den)
54 Franco Pellizotti (Ita)
55 Sylvester Szmid (Pol)
56 Henrik Simper (Den)
57 Nico Sijmens (Bel)
58 Jan Verstraeten (Bel)
59 Bjorn Hoeben (Ned)
60 David O'loughlin (Irl)
61 Michael Reihs (Den)
62 Ruslan Gryschenko (Ukr)
63 Anthony Charteau (Fra)
64 Grégory Rast (Swi)                1.04
65 Radoslav Rogina (Cro)
66 Masamichi Yamamoto (Jpn)          1.09
67 Andrius Zaleskis (Ltu)
68 Jimmy Hansen (Den)
69 Bram Tankink (Ned)
70 Zbigniew Wyrzykowski (Pol)
71 Frederik Willems (Bel)
72 James Perry (RSA)
73 Matej Gnezda (Slo)                1.33
74 Daniel Okrucinski (Pol)
75 Aurélien Clerc (Swi)              1.54
76 Andrey Kashechkin (Kaz)           3.00
77 Mickaël Olejnic (Pol)             3.55
78 Matteo Carrara (Ita)              5.09
79 Drasutis Stundzia (Ltu)           7.02
80 Hugo Sabido (Por)                 7.30
81 Derek Wilkerson (USA)             8.18
82 Thomas Voeckler (Fra)
83 Matej Stare (Slo)
84 Hrvoje Miholjevic (Cro)
85 Mikhail Andreyev (Kaz)
86 Gisle Viköyr (Nor)
87 Kjetil Groven Löitegaard (Nor)
88 Kenneth Flesja (Nor)
89 Brad Buccambuso (USA)
90 Thomas Kaufmann (Ger)             8.22
91 Riadh Baatout (Tun)              10.58
92 David Orvalho (Ned)              12.27
93 Armando Vigueras Hernandez (Mex)
94 Eric Le Blacher (Fra)            14.00
95 Juha Paajanen (Fin)
96 Panagiotis Marendakis (Gre)      15.49
97 Owen Hannie (RSA)
98 Maxim Gurov (Kaz)
99 Dermot Nally (Irl)
100 Matej Mugerli (Slo)
101 Radovan Husar (Svk)
102 Takashi Tsumuraya (Jpn)         16.20
103 Gusty Bausch (Lux)
104 Remmert Wielinga (Ned)

DNF Michael Albasini (Swi)
DNF Fabian Cancellara (Swi)
DNF Dainius Kairelis (Ltu)
DNF Zydrunas Ragelskis (Ltu)
DNF Christophe Le Mevel (Fra)
DNF José Felipe Oliveira Santos (Por)
DNF Gustavo Cesar Veloso (Spa)
DNF Israel Nunez Baticon (Spa)
DNF Constantino Zaballa Gutierrez (Spa)
DNF Roman Luhoviy (Ukr)
DNF Volodymyr Starchyk (Ukr)
DNF Matej Marin (Slo)
DNF Andreas Knapp (Aut)
DNF Harald Starzengruber (Aut)
DNF Michael Rogers (Aus)
DNF Jamie Alberts (GBr)
DNF Robin Sharman (GBr)
DNF Tom Southam (GBr)
DNF Neil Swithenbank (GBr)
DNF Dzianis Isachenka (Blr)
DNF Vasil Kiryienka (Blr)
DNF Sergei Stets (Blr)
DNF Thomas Eriksen (Den)
DNF Lars Breiseth (Nor)
DNF Per Martin Lund (Nor)
DNF Jan Gazi (Svk)
DNF Milan Sihelsky (Svk)
DNF Branislav Stejskal (Svk)
DNF Petter Renäng (Swe)
DNF Fraser Mc Master (NZl)
DNF Karl Moore (NZl)
DNF Ryan Russell (NZl)
DNF Gregory Taylor (NZl)
DNF Stephen Gallagher (Irl)
DNF Mark Scanlon (Irl)
DNF Kimmo Kananen (Fin)
DNF Oscar Stenström (Fin)
DNF Massimo De Marin (Cro)
DNF Matija Kvasina (Cro)
DNF Gareth Barry (Zim)
DNF Chris Hoffman (Zim)
DNF Ashley Lambert (Zim)
DNF Troy Leher (Zim)
DNF Alwyn Scheepers (RSA)
DNF Daniel Spence (RSA)
DNF Michal Prusa (Cze)
DNF Fabian Ceron Maya (Mex)
DNF Arquimedes Lam Zamora (Mex)
DNF Christian Valenzuela (Mex)
DNF Michel Cerdan-Ngoma (Gab)
DNF Maxuel Obame Mendou (Gab)
DNF Samuel Houhannisyan (Arm)
DNF Cyril Larue (Sey)
DNF Hedson Mathieu (Sey)
DNF Andy Rose (Sey)
DNF Minas Malatos (Gre)
DNF Ioannis Tamouridis (Gre)
DNF Brice Jones (USA)
DNF Charles Dionne (Can)
DNF Wannes Maertens (Can)
DNF Angel Junior Flanegin (Aru)
DNF Dan Diaconu (Rom)
DNF Siu Lun Ho (HKg)
DNF Chun Ming Tsoi (HKg)
DNF Markku Ainsalu (Est)
DNF Erik Raadom (Est)
DNF Erik Hoffmann (Nam)
DNF Horst Neumann (Nam)
DNF Juris Mikulens (Lat)
DNF Andris Spehts (Lat)
DNF Laszlo Barkoczi (Hun)
DNF Tamas Lengyel (Hun)
DNF Matthew Yates (NZl)