This year's World Championships in Madrid was touted as the perfect sprinter's
course - flat, fast with enough challenges to weed out the pretenders before
the big guns hit out for the win. Or so it seemed. The parcours proved far more
challenging than first thought, providing the perfect opportunity for a big
classics specialist to power away after riding a tactical race. Two stars of
the present (and certainly for the future), Tom Boonen and Alejandro Valverde,
fought it out after pre-race favourites such as Petacchi and McEwen fell by
the wayside.
In the women's and U23 races the story was a similar one; a tough parcours
meant only the strongest riders made it through with any chance of the win.
The form rider in the women's peloton, Germany's Regina Schleicher, took the
win in a bunch gallop, holding off quality riders such as Nicole Cooke and Oenone
Wood. In the U23 men's race it was survival of the fittest, and young Ukrainian
rider Dmytro Grabovskyy was the strongest on the day, winning by a sizeable
margin from Australia's Will Walker and Russian Evgeny Popov. There were some
surprises, but at day's end it was arguably the rider of the year in 2005 that
took home the major prize, and nobody was disputing that. The following pictures
display the challenges and the colour that Madrid provided for riders and fans
alike, courtesy of Mark
Johnson.
US rider Amber Neben before the
start
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Christine Thorburn (USA)
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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The elite women's field
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Australia's Helen Kelly
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Amber Neben (USA)
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Though not steep, the hills were
constant enough
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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New Zealand's Tamara Boyd
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Svitlana Semchouk (Ukraine)
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Kristin Armstrong (USA) behind
Spain's Eneritz Iturriaga Echevarria Mazag
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Christiane Soeder (Austria)
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Charlotte Goldsmith (Great Britain.)
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Nicole Cooke on the big screen
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Veronika Sharametsyeva (Belarus)
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Bogumila Matusiak (Poland)
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Think it's hard parking one of
these at the top of l'Alpe d'Huez?
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Did someone say that this course
was going to be flat?
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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U23 riders Aliaksei Polushkin (Belarus)
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Ukrainian riders animated the U23
race
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Australia's James Meadley
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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The gradual climb up Avenida de
Austurias
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Italy's Tiziano Dall'Antonia
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Dmytro Grabovskyy (Ukraine)
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Will Walker
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Lucas Persson (Sweden)
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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The U23 boys
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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The 'official' Holland House...
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Ahh, the Dutch!
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Il Diablo fancied a trip to Madrid
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Spanish pride at home
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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The Iberian good life:
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Saul Raisin (US) and Dmitriy Muravyev
(Kazakhstan)
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Mathew Hayman (Australia) next
to Switzerland's Grégory Rast
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Four hours into the race
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Saeiditanha Abbas (Iran)
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Tom Southam (Great Britain)
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Paolo Bettini
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Paolo Bettini
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Ireland's David McCann
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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The man know how to spectate:
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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It wasn't to be Alessandro Petacchi's
day
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Paolo Bettini and Alexandre Vinokourov
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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The lethally level-headed Belgian
Tom Boonen
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Guido Trenti (USA)
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Robbie McEwen and Alessandro Petacchi
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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John Lieswyn (USA)
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Simon Gerrans (Asutralia)
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Cédric Vasseur (France)
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Markus Fothen and Matthias Kessler
(Germany)
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Igor Astarloa (Spain)
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Marc Wauters and Peter Van Petegem
(Belgium)
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Thor Hushovd (Norway)
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Jimmy Casper (France)
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Rolf Aldag (Germany)
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Rodney Green (South Africa)
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Björn Leukemans (Belgium)
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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The Boonen fan club
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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They didn't get their man to the
line first
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Koos Moerenhout (Netherlands)
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Nick Nuyens (Belgium)
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Tom Boonen fans having a serious
post-race rage
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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Proudly celebrating Boonen's win
Photo ©: Mark Johnson
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