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2002 Road World Championships - CM
Hasselt-Zolder, Belgium, October 8-13, 2002
Main Page Results Start list Live report
Day 5 - October 12: Junior Men Road Race, 128km
Vive la France: Arnaud Gerard wins as crashes mark race
By Chris Henry in Zolder
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The Junior Men's Road Race went the way of Frenchman Arnaud Gerard, who won the sprint from a breakaway group of 8 riders which managed to hold off the peloton by the smallest of margins. Unfortunately for some, today's race was marred by a number of crashes, the first after only 5km of racing, the last as the peloton crossed the finish line.
The first breakaway of note came with just under 100km to race, as Dennis Persson of Sweden attacked on the Terlaemenlaan with Australian Jonathan Clarke. The duo was soon joined by Ruslan Sambris (Moldavia), who bridged before the Pitsberg. The three proceeded to build a gap of 30 seconds over the peloton in the fourth lap. The next rider to bridge the gap was Belgian Evert Verbist, who leapt from the pack to make the leading group a quartet. Behind, Clarke's teammate Mark Jamieson punctured and was forced into a high speed chase to rejoin the pack.
With the Italians leading the chase behind, the group received another addition as Russian Maxim Belkov bridged across. The break's advantage slowly dwindled until the peloton was able to reel the five leaders in at the race's halfway mark, averaging over 43km/h for the first half. After a series of riders attempted unsuccessfully to break from the group, American Tyler Farrar provoked a split on the Terlaemenlaan climb, with four other riders in tow and three others chasing in between the break and the peloton. Among the chasers was Irish hopeful Nicholas Roche, who along with several others bridged to eventually swell the group to ten riders.
With little over 30km left to race, the leading group of ten riders was joined by another three, but the level of cooperation was beginning to wane amongst the leaders as the Danish team took up the charge from behind. With a chase group lodged between the break and the peloton, the gaps were steadily falling as the riders entered the final 20km. Both Roche and Ferrar tried to keep the pace high and the break alive, but the pack caught the leaders with 14km to go.
"I got in that group and we were working pretty well," commented Farrar at the finish, "and I really thought that was the race right there. But the second group came up to us and guys just started sitting on, it was too big a group and people weren't willing to commit."
Following a fall at the front of the peloton, and a failed attack by Spaniard Iban Iriondo Uranga, a group of three bolted off the front, including Nicolas Sanderson, Tom Veelers (Ned), and Arnaud Gerard. As the peloton climbed the Terlaemenlaan for the final time, another crash came at the front of the bunch. Up front, Matej Jurco (Svk) was desperately trying to close the gap to the three leaders, along with Dutchman Joost van Leijnen. Along with Jukka Vastaranta of Finland, a new group of six had formed off the front with 5km to go.
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The six leaders gave it everything to keep the peloton from catching on, and entered the finishing circuit to fight out the sprint. Aussie Sanderson was the first to jump, but at 200m to the line his move came too early. Gerard powered past Sanderson to take the win for France, as Vastaranta held his wheel long enough to take the silver medal. As the breakaway crossed the line the peloton was closing in quickly, with Emanuele Rizza taking the bunch sprint for Italy.
Just behind, the finish was marred by a serious pileup that took out a number of riders right as they crossed the line, apparently a result of a touch of wheels between a Spanish and Italian rider. Ryan Sullivan (Australia) was injured in the crash, taken to hospital with a suspected broken jaw.
Photography
Images by Jeff Tse
- Nicolas Sanderson (Aus) gave it everything to forge the winning break
Images by AFP Photo
- Arnaud Gerard (Fra) wins the Junior Men's Road Race
- A Spanish rider hits the deck first precipitating a massive fall on the finish line of the junior men's race
- A German rider is forced to cross the line in a rather painful manner at the finish of the Junior Men's Road Race
- Australian Ryan Sullivan is taken to hospital after his crash in the Junior Men's Road Race
Images by 
- Arnaud Gerard (Fra) throws his arms up as he wins the Junior Men's Road Race
- Arnaud Gerard (Fra) begins his victory celebrations
- Arnaud Gerard (Fra) was first in front of Finn Jukka Vastaranta (R.) and Australian Nicholas Sanderson (C)
- Damn that feels good Arnaud Gerard (Fra) is the new World Junior Champ
- A touch of wheels on the finish line caused a massive pileup
- Riders hit the deck as the Italians rue their missed opportunity
- Some post crash cleaning up was necessary
- Arnaud Gerard (Fra) waves from the podium with his flowers and rainbow jersey
- The podium of the Junior Men's RR Jukka Vastaranta (Fin, 2nd), Arnaud Gerard (Fra, 1st) and Nicholas Sanderson (Aus, 3rd)
- Arnaud Gerard (Fra) with his gold medal
Images by Chris Henry/Cyclingnews
- Arnaud Gerard (France, right) urges on the rest of the break
- The chasing field flies through the pits
- Nicholas Sanderson (left) congratulates winner Gerard as the other leaders vent their frustration
- Arnaud Gerard (right) was clearly the happier of the two
- Arnaud Gerard gets an escort to the winner's podium
Results
1 Arnaud Gerard (Fra) 2.50.17 (45.101 km/h) 2 Jukka Vastaranta (Fin) 3 Nicolas Sanderson (Aus) 4 Tom Veelers (Ned) 5 Matej Jurco (Svk) 6 Joost Van Leijen (Ned) 7 James Meadley (Aus) 0.05 8 Mauro Santambrogio (Ita) 0.09 9 Emanuele Rizza (Ita) 10 Samuele Marzoli (Ita) 11 Lukaz Fus (Cze) 12 Vitalij Samsonov (Ltu) 13 Aldo Ino Ilesic (Slo) 14 Heinrich Haussler (Ger) 15 Aldis Abolins (Lat) 16 Tyler Farrar (USA) 17 Stanislav Kardos (Svk) 18 Ruslan Sambris (Mda) 19 Iouri Trofimov (Rus) 20 Risto Usin (Est) 21 Daisuke Koiwa (Jpn) 22 Laurent Didier (Lux) 23 Tomas Micek (Cze) 24 Pascal Zaugg (Swi) 25 Juha-Matti Alaluusua (Fin) 26 Andrei Hauryliuk (Blr) 27 Matti Breschel (Den) 28 Jan Sel (Cze) 29 Markus Eibegger (Aut) 30 Dmitry Kozantchouk (Rus) 31 Pekka Jaaskelainen (Fin) 32 Manuel Rhyn (Swi) 33 Nazareno Rossi (Swi) 34 Veaceslav Talasimov (Mda) 35 Bert De Backer (Bel) 36 Olivier Stiler-Cote (USA) 37 Nathan Mitchell (USA) 38 Andrei Laptsenkov (Est) 39 Leon Makarovic (Slo) 40 Andrey Dimovskikh (Kaz) 41 Dumitru Creciun (Mda) 42 Ronny Luedtke (Ger) 43 Fausto Lorenzo (Spa) 44 Bartosz Pajor (Pol) 45 Denis Birjukov (Est) 46 Huub Duyn (Ned) 47 Alexey Kolessov (Kaz) 48 Vincent Jerome (Fra) 49 Andreas Finnerup (Den) 50 Jurgen Roelandts (Bel) 51 Paidi O'brien (Irl) 52 Rene Mandri (Est) 53 Cameron Evans (Can) 54 Ryan Sullivan (Aus) 55 Takeshi Ikeda (Jpn) 56 Vanja Satinovic (Cro) 57 Oleksandr Shuvayev (Ukr) 58 Janez Rozman (Slo) 59 Maxim Belkov (Rus) 60 Gianni Meersman (Bel) 61 Mark Jamieson (Aus) 62 Martins Polakovs (Lat) 63 Andy Schleck (Lux) 64 Igor Klak (Pol) 65 Peter Velits (Svk) 66 Clemens Fankhauser (Aut) 67 Leon Nel (RSA) 68 Martin Velits (Svk) 69 Josef Kugler (Aut) 70 Leonard Snoeks (Nor) 71 Thomas Dekker (Ned) 72 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) 73 Thomas Lövkvist (Swe) 74 Gilles Hendel (Lux) 75 Roberto Traficante (Ita) 76 Dusan Krstic (Yug) 77 Richard Ondryas (Cze) 78 Anders Lund (Den) 79 Alexey Esin (Rus) 80 Andrei Kunitski (Blr) 81 Theo Hardwick (Irl) 82 Andrew Mcquaid (Irl) 83 Przemyslaw Pietrzak (Pol) 84 Petko Atanasov (Bul) 85 Bruno Lima (Por) 86 Rafael Infantino Abreu (Col) 87 Jordane Chazal (Fra) 88 Nicholas Roche (Irl) 89 Mikhail Ignatiev (Rus) 90 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) 91 Yair Caspi (Isr) 92 Emanuel Kiserlovski (Cro) 93 Grega Bole (Slo) 94 Manolis Karimpidis (Gre) 95 Valeriy Dmitriyev (Kaz) 96 Miha Svab (Slo) 97 Matthias Schröger (Aut) 98 Vitaliy Kondrut (Ukr) 99 Antonio Jesus (Por) 100 Zachary Grabowski (USA) 101 Dennis Persson (Swe) 102 Viktor Tonev (Bul) 103 Svein Erik Vold (Nor) 104 Gonzalo Rabunal Rios (Spa) 105 Artur Garcia (Ven) 106 Bruno Sancho (Por) 107 Thomas Frei (Swi) 108 Jakub Slotta (Svk) 109 Jesper Ingevaldsson (Swe) 110 Christian Lener (Aut) 111 Jonathon Clarke (Aus) 112 Daryl Impey (RSA) 113 Evert Verbist (Bel) 114 Nick Ingels (Bel) 115 Jan Fredrik Mohn (Nor) 116 Branislav Samoilau (Blr) 117 Makoto Funaki (Jpn) 118 Filipe Cardoso (Por) 119 Stefan Kushlev (Bul) 120 Andrew Davidson (Can) 121 Oleg Chuzhda (Ukr) 122 Sebastian Schwager (Ger) 123 Nico Graf (Ger) 1.28 124 Diego Diaz Pretel (Col) 1.43 125 Alexandre Cabrera (Fra) 1.46 126 José Mendes (Por) 1.49 127 Sergey Danniker (Kaz) 1.57 128 Pawel Bronz (Pol) 2.57 129 Jos Harms (Ned) 5.44 130 David Vitoria (Swi) 131 Mads Christensen (Den) 132 Iban Iriondo Uranga (Spa) 133 Andrius Buividas (Ltu) 12.03 134 Abundio Guerrero Mata (Mex) 12.27 135 Denis Cioban (Mda) 13.53 136 Eladio Sanchez Prado (Spa) 14.15 137 Vitalijs Barzdens (Lat) 138 Maxime Vives (Can) 19.30 139 Mounir Zouaghi TUN 21.38 140 Viktoras Biga (Ltu) 141 Badr Al-Yassien (KSA) 24.23 DNF Andriy Buchko (Ukr) DNF Dmytro Grabovskyy (Ukr) DNF Mickael Delage (Fra) DNF Sebastian Paddags (Ger) DNF Patryk Bonda (Pol) DNF Michael Concannon (Irl) DNF David Studnicka (Cze) DNF Cabrel Boucher (Can) DNF Marsh Cooper (Can) DNF Dean-Srecko Kliba (Cro) DNF Pavao Sever (Cro) DNF Eckard Bergh (RSA) DNF Kai Tsun Lam (HKg) DNF Kin San Wu (HKg) DNF Nikolaos Kaloudakis (Gre) DNF Siarhei Khomich (Blr) DNF Filiberto Herrera Garcia (Mex) DNF Matthew Brammeier (GBr) DNF Adam Illingworth (GBr) DNF Michael Jolley (GBr) DNF Christopher Penketh (GBr) DNF Joé Kirch (Lux) DNF Vladimir Grossu (Mda)
