World Championships: Jr Men’s & Elite Women’s Road Races

The Junior Men rode a 140 kilometer road race this morning which included 5 laps on the Florence/Fiesole climbing circuit. On their first lap, who was in the 15 man breakaway but my new favorite junior man, Zeke Mostov of the United States.

 

The gap was over 4 minutes back to the peloton where I was trying to pick out the 5 Canadians and 3 Uzbeks. Even though the peloton was practically overflowing with 199 riders, the Canadian kits were easy to spot.

 

The Uzbek kits, on the other hand, were not. I was expecting something akin to the time trial kit so it was only when I reviewed my photos after the first lap that I found the Uzbek riders. In this shot, Sergey Medvedev is in the green and blue kit near the front of his group.

 

With each successive lap, the peloton got thinner and thinner. Even though 70 riders did not finish the race, that still left 129 riders on the 16 kilometer circuit and there wasn’t an overly long gap between the tail and the head of the race.

 

Once I had learned to identify the Uzbek kit (which most spectators assumed said “Pakistan” thanks to the way their race numbers covered the back of their jerseys), I got to practice my Uzbek cheering for the trio. Sergey gave me a mighty fist pump the first time I yelled out “Tez boling, Sergey!” (“Be fast, Sergey!”) but the next time I saw him and cried out, “Uzbekistan!” he turned to look at me like he couldn’t believe his ears.

 

With another lap yet to go, there was a group of Irish riders who looked far too old even from a distance to be racing in the junior category. About half a second later, I realized it was Dan Martin (in the blue helmet) with his teammates Matthew Brammeier and Sam Bennett! Dan high-fived the two junior women Canadian riders as he carried on with his training ride.

 

Meanwhile, the riders who could not keep ahead of the broom wagon were given the option of riding down or driving the rest of the circuit. This rider from Azerbaijan opted for the former and it was an unexpected sight to see him cruising past picnicking spectators and souvenir shoppers.

 

The riders do not wear radios so the feed zone is one of the few opportunities where the athletes can communicate their status to their coaches and soigneurs. Below, a Dutch rider told his coach his legs felt empty and a Belgian cyclist grabbed a water bottle.

 

The Azerbaijani rider wanted to cross the street to get to his coaches but a race official didn’t trust the homemade looks of his race number.

 

I was really excited at the idea of scoring a musette or water bottle from the Uzbek squad so I shouted to the coaches in Uzbek, but I think the coach assumed I was just another souvenir hunting fan and turned me down, even though I can’t imagine anyone not associated with the team had spoken with him in Uzbek. Boo.

 

A Hungarian rider received a push from his coaches.

 

Down near the finish line, the photographers looked enormously bored as they waited for the race leaders to arrive.

 

Colombia and France had a small advantage coming into the final lap.

 

The police and race workers moved the fences so they could easily close off the rider finish area when the time came. They left just the narrowest of gaps for the riders to squeeze through on their fifth and final lap.

 

After more than three and a half hours of racing, there was a winner. A Dutch rider won by a margin of 3 seconds and a Dane won the bunch sprint to claim the silver medal. Bronze went to Albania. Again, spectators were not allowed in to see the podium ceremony. Instead, I realized how much the peloton resembles a triage unit after a long road race.

 

It was sweet to see the 2 Algerians ride around like this for a couple of minutes.

 

Some of these riders behave in such a professional, mature manner, it’s easy to forget they’re 17 and 18 year old kids. An Irish coach comforted the disappointed rider who finished dead last.

 

Zeke Mostov placed 67th. As he pedaled off to the team vehicle, I called out to congratulate him on his time trial medal. Even though it was loud and busy in the finishing area, he turned around and beamed an ecstatic smile, thanking me, which meant all the more given that I’m sure he had no idea I had spent the morning of his time trial with his nervous family. A great rider and a genuinely good guy? I’m already looking forward to following his career.

 

As the security guards insisted on keeping he junior men in the finishing pen, one older rider wanted to pass through. Alberto Contador was trying to navigate his way through the melee so he could examine the course for his upcoming road race.

 

Mathieu Van Der Poel of the Netherlands pulled on the rainbow jersey but fans were not allowed in to watch. Shortly after the medal presentation, there was a ceremony for the best junior team which we were permitted to attend. France won with Denmark in second and the Netherlands taking third.

 

Results

1st: Mathieu Van Der Poel, Netherlands

2nd: Mads Pedersen, Denmark

3rd: Iltjan Nika, Albania

 

Fien and I never strayed far from the road in case any of our favorite riders were riding the course but no such luck. We waited another couple of hours and then saw the elite women’s road race, which followed the identical course as the junior men. A breakaway with most of the American team flew around the corner as they started the gradual climb up to Fiesole.

 

The peloton was already a bit strung out before they even arrived in the city but the circuit exaggerated the time difference between the leaders and tail of the course. I wish there had been a screen where we could have watched the rest of the action because riders kept attacking and there was a new leader every time the race completed a lap.

 

Both Italy and the Netherlands had multiple riders in the breakaway going in to the final lap.

 

Riders had been dropping out throughout the duration of the course but rather than ride the final lap, a huge group abandoned en masse. Just 46 of the original 141 riders completed the race.

 

Our only source of information was the awful race commentary. There were a number of attacks in the final kilometers, which I’m sure were exciting to watch, but when the American announcer called everything like it was the decisive move, it was hard to get a clear picture of what was really happening. Finally, with 10 meters yet to go, the Italian announcer took over and declared that Marianne Vos was about to solo to another world championship victory. She had a commanding 15 second gap over Sweden’s Emma Johansson who beat out Italian Rossella Ratto for second.

 

Vos and Johansson were swamped by the media right after the finish line but Ratto made it another 50 meters. She had between 2 and 3 seconds to catch her breath before the press found her.

 

I was watching Claudia Hausler, who had come in 12th, because she looked a bit off somehow. A moment later, she was throwing up.

 

Fortunately, not every cyclist was in as rough shape as the German. When a couple of Polish riders rode by on their way to the buses, a fan started to yell for Maja Wloszczowska.

 

He convinced her to sign a few autographs which got a massive roar of approval from the crowd. As if I needed another reason to love Poland.

 

I’ve been at the finish a few times now and seen a range of responses from security to family members of medal winners. When Marianne Vos’s mother (in the orange scarf) tried to see her daughter, security was adamant that she would not get in. The woman in the orange top tried to reason with security, but she eventually gave up and pushed and pushed until she had slipped through to the other side, at which point she grabbed the mother’s hand and pulled her through, too. The guards did nothing.

 

I was approaching my limit of Italian men for the week when the older man behind me began to push me and started yelling. I had no idea what he was going on about until I saw a rider start to come over. Valentina Scandolara greeted him familiarly and he was beyond thrilled. She had placed 28th and, here’s a fun piece of trivia: she and I share the same birthday, separated by 9 years (I’ll let you guess which one of us is older).

 

Security pushed open the fences while the medal ceremony was underway and I hustled over to the podium in time to hear the Dutch national anthem begin.

 

There was a big crowd and people behind me were pushing to get closer. I was in the second row but didn’t want to move at all because someone had a bike in front of me. Out of curiosity, I glanced down to look at the bike and noticed its shiny gold seat and the number 1. This bike could only belong to one rider.

 

There were plenty of Vos supporters decked out in orange.

 

Ellen Van Dijk, winner of the time trial championship, was in the middle of giving an interview but had to turn around and laugh when the fans began to chant her name.

 

Ratto emerged from the media tent with her bronze medal.

 

Emma Johansson wearing silver.

 

Marianne Vos, ready to spend another year in the world champion’s rainbow jersey.

 

Results

1st: Marianne Vos, Netherlands

2nd: Emma Johansson, Sweden

3rd: Rossella Ratto, Italy