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World Championships - CM
Verona, Italy, September 27-October 3, 2004
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Race 7 - Friday October 1: Road Race - U23 Men, 177km
Belarusian Blasts to U23 gold
Second silver for Dekker, Italy finishes out of the medals
By Tim Maloney, European Editor In Verona
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Bursting with pride and showing off his Belarus jersey as he crossed the line in today's U23 Men's Road Race on via Porta Nuova in Verona, 22 year old Kanstantsin Siutsou became the first ever male rider to win a World Championship for the eastern European nation. Racing with only two teammates today, the long, lean Belarusian Siutsou conquered the Rainbow Jersey ahead of strong teams from Italy, Slovenia, Holland and Ukraine singlehandedly to take a solo win, 1'01 ahead of runner-up Thomas Dekker.
Today's U23 Men's Road Race in Verona came down a battle between tiny Italian climber Domenico Pozzovivo, who started the race-winning move with 53km to go and Siutsou. In the Mutt & Jeff break, the riders were no strangers as they both race on Italian clubs, and when they found themselves away, Siutsou's powerful ride just wore out the Italian and the lanky blond soloed away to victory on the last ascent of Torricelle.
Like last year's U23 World Champ Lagutin from Uzbekistan, Siutsou rides for the Italian team Palazzago-Vellutex. "When we went I didn't know it was the winning move, but when we were at the bottom of the climb with two laps to go, I knew we might stay away," he said. "But it was hard, very hard."
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19th here in the Junior World's 5 years ago, Siutsou was runner-up in the Volta Ciclista a Lleida in Spain this June and has also ridden for the Belarus National Team Pursuit, but this season Siutsou concentrated on the road and today his focus paid off with a World Championship. Next year, the Belarusian will sport the silver and blue colours of Fassa Bortolo.
20 year old Thomas Dekker from the Netherlands was third last year in the U23 road race in Hamilton and second this year, winning his second U23 silver medal Friday after Monday's U23 TT hardware. Clearly dejected after losing in his specialty against the watch at the beginning of the week, Dekker was exceedingly strong today and exceedingly well marked by the competition. Whenever the dark haired Dutchman moved, an Italian and plenty of other riders were there. "I'm not that disappointed today", explained Dekker at the post-race press conference. "When the Belarus guy and the Italian attacked with two and an half laps to go, the Italians were there. I went across on the last lap with the Danish guy and caught Pozzovivo. So when I saw that (Siutsou) had 0'40 with 5km to go, I knew the best I could do was second so that was OK for me."
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Major talent Dekker, who will move from Rabobank's TT3 squad up to the TT1 team in 2005 at 21 years old beat Danish rider Mads Christensen in the sprint for second, while a tearful, dejected Pozzovivo crossed the finish line 0'07 later and out of the medals. "I gave it my all", sniffed the little Italian climber. "The team believed in me today, but I couldn't repay them."
Despite missing the podium today, talented scalatore Pozzovivo will pass pro in 2005 for the Italian Panaria team. Pozzovivo's teammate Nibali, bronze medalist in the TT, made a late race surge to finish fifth and the remains of the break of 13 were rounded out by U23 World TT champ Brajkovic, while Ukrainian rider Grivko held off the peloton 2'31 behind Siutsou for 14th. Kiwi Jeremy Yates was just behind in 16th, with top American Tyler Farrar outclassed in 28th. Although more was expected today from the Australian team, Ben Johnson led the way for the Cyclones, finishing in 44th, 5'48 behind.
How it unfolded
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On a hazy fall Friday in Verona, the Men's U23 road race got under way at 12:30 and after a few early attacks, Aleksejs Saramotins (Latvia) attacked the fourth time up the Torricelle climb. He got a gap and was pursued by Dmytro Novosad (Ukraine) and Jorge Azanza Soto (Spain), while the Dutch were controlling the chase. Saramotins was solo for a lap until Novosad bridged across but the tempo picked up behind and with 105 km to go, it was all back together.
On the sixth lap, Timothy Duggan (USA) rode away solo before the climb but was caught as the pace behind increased. Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) attacked, but he was also sucked back up. American Duggan went again and this time was joined by Aussie track star Peter Dawson. At the start of lap 7, the duo had a 0'20 gap, with Dawson is riding on a borrowed bike after his was stolen at the Australian team hotel last night. The seventh time up the Torricelle these two riders have almost a minute at the summit, but soon the chase picked up behind and Dawson and Duggan came back on lap eight before the climb.
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As lap nine began, the Australians were leading the chase, 0'15 behind an escape of seven riders, including Claudio Corioni (Ita) and Julian David Muñoz Giraldo (Col) and for the ninth ascent up the Torricelle, it was gruppo compatto. With 55km to go, Irish riders Philip Deignan attacked and was joined by Saul Raisin (USA) for the second English-speaking breakaway of the day. Danish rider Mads Christensen pulled the duo back and then Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) countered with Kanstantsin Siutsou (Blr) just behind.
This turned out to be the break of the day, with Nibali, Pozzovivo and Siutsou (Belarus) being joined by Nic Ingels (Bel), Marc De Maar (Ned) and Christensen (Den) away after nine and a half laps. Matti Breschel (Den) and Andriy Grivko (Ukr) bridged, as did De Maar's teammate Dekker (Ned). By the 10th ascent of the Torricelle, all hell had broken loose behind the break as riders desperately tried to bridge across. 2003 U23 Italian and European champ Giovanni Visconti (Ita) made it across to make it three Azzurri up front, numbers that their coach Fusi had to like. TT champ Brajkovic (Slo), Dietziker (Swi) and Humbert (Aus) were also up there in the big fluid break. Humbert didn't survive though, and was replaced by Filipe Cardoso (Portugal).
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With two and a half laps to go, Siutsou and Pozzovivo got away and attacked the Torricelle for penultimate time. Dekker was chasing hard, but the Italians didn't want to chase their teammate. Siutsou and Pozzovivo had 1'00 on the chase atop Torricelle for the second last time and the Belarusian was really strong. On the final ascent, Siutsou made the duo a solo as the little Italian was cramping, eventually being caught by the strong last lap counter move of Dekker and Christiansen. The little Italian hung tough but in the end, Christiansen's pre-emptive attack with 600 meters to go was inexorably sucked up by Dekker as the Italian foundered in their wake and slipped to fourth.
Photography
Images by Fotoreporter Sirotti
- The peloton on the start line
- Quo vadis?
- Vincenzo Nibali (Italy) smiles on the start line
- The peloton still together at halfway
- Pozzovivo drives on the Torricelle
- Vincenzo Nibali (Italy) was very active
- Pozzovivo and Siutsou on the descent
- Pozzovivo on the descent
- Giovanni Visconti (Italy) on the descent
- Siutsou and Pozzovivo through town
- Nibali through town
- The field passes through the centre of Verona
- The peloton descends the Torricelle
- The breakaways head through Verona's centre
- Pozzovivo leads Siutsou across the start/finish
- Kanstantsin Siutsou (Belarus) wins the U23 men's RR
- Thomas Dekker (Ned) beats Christensen for the silver
- Kanstantsin Siutsou (Belarus) is a happy man
- Kanstantsin Siutsou (Belarus) salutes from the podium
- Kanstantsin Siutsou (Belarus) smiles as he is the new World U23 Champ
- Kanstantsin Siutsou (Belarus) kisses the gold
- Thomas Dekker (Ned) looked a lot happier with his silver medal today
- Mads Christensen (Den) with the bronze
- The podium (L to R): Thomas Dekker (Ned, 2nd), Kanstantsin Siutsou (Blr, 1st) and Mads Christensen (Den, 3rd)
- The podium demonstrates the curvature of space
Images by AFP Photo
- Thomas Dekker (Ned) was definitely one of the strongest in the race
- Vincenzo Nibali (Italy) in the break
- The podium (L to R): Thomas Dekker (Ned, 2nd), Kanstantsin Siutsou (Blr, 1st) and Mads Christensen (Den, 3rd)
Images by Gerry McManus
- The staff at the Pasticceria Barini where Christensen and the Danes finished up
- Mads Christensen (Den) with members of the Danish team
- Mads Christensen (Den) celebrates his bronze medal
- Mads Christensen (Den) is hungry
Images by Mitch Friedman Photography
- Team Italia on the podium
- The Australian team remembers an urgent appointment
- Team France
- The Colombian under-23s
- The lads from Austria
- Team Norway
- The Hungarian contingent gotta wear shades
- The British are coming
- Team Estonia
- Serbia & Montenegro United
- The Japanese riders
- The team from Slovakia
- The under-23 riders from Moldova
- Team Venezuela
- The South Africans attempt to out-mood everyone
- Team Poland
- The Russian squad
- The Mexican under-23s
- Team Belarus seem to have skipped Helmet Tightening 101
- Team U-S-A! arrange themselves in size order
- The under-23 men get under way in the world championships road race
- Eventual winner Kanstantsin Siutsou (Belarus) goes into a turn
- Kevin Bouchard Hall (USA) takes a corner
- The chase group in hot pursuit
- The devil came down to Verona...
Results
1 Kanstantsin Siutsou (Belarus) 4.33.33 (38.823 km/h) 2 Thomas Dekker (Netherlands) 1.01 3 Mads Christensen (Denmark) 1.02 4 Domenico Pozzovivo (Italy) 1.09 5 Vincenzo Nibali (Italy) 1.30 6 Matti Breschel (Denmark) 1.38 7 Giovanni Visconti (Italy) 8 Marc De Maar (Netherlands) 1.41 9 Andreas Dietziker (Switzerland) 1.50 10 Nick Ingels (Belgium) 1.51 11 Filipe Cardoso (Portugal) 2.03 12 Matic Strgar (Slovenia) 2.23 13 Janez Brajkovic (Slovenia) 2.24 14 Andriy Grivko (Ukraine) 2.31 15 Eduard Vorganov (Russia) 2.40 16 Jeremy Yates (New Zealand) 17 Philip Deignan (Ireland) 18 Martin Pedersen (Denmark) 19 Rene Mandri (Estonia) 20 Honorio Machado Perez (Venezuela) 21 Koen De Kort (Netherlands) 22 Nicholas Roche (Ireland) 23 Aleksejs Saramotins (Latvia) 24 Serge Pauwels (Belgium) 25 Lukas Fus (Czech Republic) 26 Paul Martens (Germany) 27 François Parisien (Canada) 28 Tyler Farrar (USA) 29 Fumiyuki Beppu (Japan) 30 Evghenii Gutalov (Moldavia) 31 Andy Schleck (Luxembourg) 32 Ivan Sever (Croatia) 33 Thomas Rohregger (Austria) 2.42 34 Ricardo Martins (Portugal) 35 Julian David Munoz Giraldo (Colombia) 36 Saul Raisin (USA) 37 Tomaz Nose (Slovenia) 2.47 38 Igor Anton Hernandez (Spain) 2.50 39 Juan Pablo Magallanes Aranda (Mexico) 3.10 40 Blazej Janiaczyk (Poland) 41 Olegs Melehs (Latvia) 42 Marcus Burghardt (Germany) 4.25 43 José Antonio Redondo Ramos (Spain) 44 Benjamin Johnson (Australia) 5.48 45 Andrei Kunitski (Belarus) 5.56 46 Milan Branicky (Slovakia) 47 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spain) 48 Markus Eibegger (Austria) 49 Micael Isidoro (Portugal) 5.57 50 Ashley Humbert (Australia) 51 Ella Rigotto (Italy) 52 Martin Mares (Czech Republic) 53 Alex Alberto Cano Ardila (Colombia) 54 Nebojsa Jovanovic (Serbia-Montenegro) 6.02 55 Peter Mazur (Poland) 6.04 56 Dmitry Kozantchouk (Russia) 57 Sergey Firsanov (Russia) 6.08 58 Heinrich Haussler (Germany) 7.08 59 Branislav Samoilav (Belarus) 10.41 60 Igors Dobrovolskis (Latvia) 61 Boris Shpilevsky (Russia) 62 Laurent Arn (Switzerland) 63 Muradjan Khalmuratov (Uzbekistan) 11.49 64 Kevin Bouchard Hall (USA) 12.31 65 Carlos Fernando Vargas Artunduaga (Colombia) 14.02 66 Fredy Orlando Piamonte Rodriguez (Colombia) 14.04 67 Arnaud Gerard (France) 14.05 68 Paidi O'Brien (Ireland) 16.12 69 Andriy Pryshchepa (Ukraine) 70 Andrius Buividas (Lithuania) 71 Benn Würth (Luxembourg) 72 Jan Barta (Czech Republic) 73 Olivier Bonnaire (France) 74 Denis Cioban (Moldavia) 75 Carlo Westphal (Germany) 16.16 76 Kristofers Racenajs (Latvia) 19.42 77 Andrei Laptsenkov (Estonia) 78 Timothy Duggan (USA) 79 Dumitru Creciun (Moldavia) 22.51 80 Karolis Volungevicius (Lithuania) 25.09 81 Goran Smelcerovic (Serbia-Montenegro) 25.36 82 Emanuel Kiserlovski (Croatia) 83 Ruslan Sambris (Moldavia) 25.38 84 Barnabas Vizer (Hungary) DNF Miha Svab (Slovenia) DNF Claudio Corioni (Italy) DNF Daniel Gysling (Switzerland) DNF Dmytro Novosad (Ukraine) DNF Jean-Paul Simon (Belgium) DNF Ivan Gilmartin (Spain) DNF Peter Velits (Slovakia) DNF João Cabreira (Portugal) DNF Eckard Bergh (South Africa) DNF Caspar Austa (Estonia) DNF Akos Haiszer (Hungary) DNF Bastiaan Giling (Netherlands) DNF Andrej Omulec (Slovenia) DNF Ivan Shchegolev (Russia) DNF Konstantin Schubert (Germany) DNF Florian Stalder (Switzerland) DNF Sergey Danniker (Kazakhstan) DNF Valeriy Dmitriyev (Kazakhstan) DNF Juha-Matti Alaluusua (Finland) DNF Jukka Vastaranta (Finland) DNF Di Gregorio Rémy (France) DNF Julien Loubet (France) DNF Minard Sébastien (France) DNF Andreas Johansson (Sweden) DNF Rafael Infantino Abreu (Colombia) DNF Anders Lund (Denmark) DNF Peter Dawson (Australia) DNF Aaron Kemps (Australia) DNF Nicolas Sanderson (Australia) DNF Daryl Impey (South Africa) DNF Jacobus Odendaal (South Africa) DNF Lukasz Bodnar (Poland) DNF Artur Krol (Poland) DNF Cameron Evans (Canada) DNF Chris Isaac (Canada) DNF Dan Fleeman (Great Britain) DNF Kalvis Eisaks (Latvia) DNF Miguel Chacon Sosa (Venezuela) DNF Artur Garcia Rincon (Venezuela) DNF Richard Ochoa Quintero (Venezuela) DNF Byron Guama (Equador) DNF Wouter Weylandt (Belgium) DNF Michael Pichler (Austria) DNF Jonas Holmkvist (Sweden) DNF Matthew Crane (USA) DNF Andriy Buchko (Ukraine) DNF Volodymyr Kogut (Ukraine) DNF Tomasz Marczynski (Poland) DNF Dustin Mcburnie (Canada) DNF Evan Oliphant (Great Britain) DNF Kieran Page (Great Britain) DNF Christopher Myhre (Norway) DNF Lucas Haedo (Argentina) DNF Marco Antonio Ortega Alvarez (Mexico) DNF Maximiliano Richeze (Argentina) DNF Ignacio Sarabia Diaz (Mexico) DNF Tigran Korkotyan (Armenia) DNF Dominique Cornu (Belgium) DNF Shinagawa Masahiro (Japan) DNF Waylon Woolcock (South Africa) DNF Nybö Haavard (Norway) DNF Stian Remme (Norway) DNF Justas Volungevicius (Lithuania) DNF Jorge Azanza Soto (Spain) DNF Hubert Schwab (Switzerland) DNF Marian Hecl (Slovakia) DNF António Jesus (Portugal) DNF Timothy Cassidy (Ireland) DNF Anibal Andres Borrajo (Argentina) DNF Dor Dviri (Israel) DNF Kai Reus (Netherlands) DNF Martin Velits (Slovakia) DNF Zvonimir Pokupec (Croatia) DNF Kasper Klostergaard (Denmark) DNF Jonathan Tiernan-Lock (Great Britain) DNF Daniel Zsombok (Hungary) DNF Marin Andrei (Romania) DNF Segundo Navarrete (Equador) DNF Alexandr Kovdiy (Kazakhstan) DNF Bernhard Kohl (Austria) DNF Dragan Spasic (Serbia-Montenegro) DNF Andrew McQuaid (Ireland) DNF Alan Dumic (Croatia) DNF Peter Kusztor (Hungary) DNF Marco Mauri (San Marino) DNF Carlos Sanchez (Equador) DNF Robert Mitosinka (Slovakia)
