The marquee event! Fourteen laps of the 18.2k course to determine the owner of the rainbow stripes for the next 12 months.
14 laps to go
Two Colombians and a Croatian had attacked from the gun and had just a couple of seconds by this early point in the race. Christian Meier led the peloton.
Eric Marcotte.
Johan Vansummeren.
13 laps to go
The 4 man break of Carlos Quintero (Colombia), Oleksandr Polivoda (Ukraine), Matija Kvasina (Croatia), and Zydrunas Savickas (Lithuania) had an advantage of 1:30.
Poland in the peloton.
Brent Bookwalter.
Representing 3 different countries, 4 Garmin riders: Dan Martin (Ireland), David Millar (UK), Andrew Talansky & Alex Howes (USA).
12 laps to go
The break was building their advantage and now had 6:15 while Georgios Bouglas and Michal Golas tried to bridge.
Germany's Christian Knees in the peloton.
Michael Albasini, Greg Van Avermaet, and Kiel Reijnen.
Michal Kwiatkowski.
11 laps to go
The peloton had eased off even more and the break now enjoyed 14:00.
Poland riding on the front.
John Degenkolb.
The course wasn't hard enough for Talansky and Rory Sutherland!
Vincenzo Nibali, Ramunas Navardauskas, Cyril Gautier, and possibly a few other were involved in a small crash at the start of the lap. These 3 managed to Below: Gautier's kit bears evidence of the crash.
10 laps to go
With 182k remaining, the break's 16:00 advantage wasn't a worry for the Polish lead peloton.
Andre Greipel.
Daryl Impey.
Johannes Fröhlinger.
Italians Nibali and Giovanni Visconti.
9 laps to go
Slowly, Poland began to reel in the break and cut their lead down to 14:00.
Simon Gerrans.
Alex Howes.
Spaniards Ion Izagirre, Jesus Herrada, and Luis Leon Sanchez.
Defending world champion Rui Costa and teammate Andre Cardoso.
Purito Rodriguez, Christian Meier, and Simon Geschke.
8 laps to go
Poland continued to pull in the break who were now at 12:00.
Geraint Thomas with his British teammates.
Carlos Betancour, Jack Bauer, and Albasini.
7 laps to go
For the first time today, the peloton got serious and picked up the pace. They were positively flying up the hill.
Nacer Bouhanni.
Adam Hansen and Kevin Reza.
Paul Martens and Geschke.
6 laps to go
With Poland setting tempo at the front, the break was down to 9:15 and losing ground. The weather had forecasted rain all morning, followed by storms in the afternoon. The rain had started in some parts of the course and everyone had a good deal of mud and grit splattered on their faces.
5 laps to go
Down to 6:10, the break passed on the beer and kept going.
Cadel Evans.
Navardauskas trying to negotiate his rain cape.
4 laps to go
Italy came to the front and helped bring the break to within 2:00. The pace was starting to pull the peloton apart and groups of dropped riders were starting to form.
Belgians in the rain: Philippe Gilbert, Sep Vanmarcke, and Jan Bakelants.
Fabian Cancellara.
Hansen and Navardauskas.
Millar.
3 laps to go
An attack during the previous lap saw Tony Martin shoot off the front and gain about 20 seconds on the chase group which included Geschke, Visconti, Vanmarcke, Albasini, and Peter Kennaugh among others.
The chase had 40 seconds on the peloton.
2 laps to go
Visconti attacked and now it was his turn to dangle off the front by 20 seconds.
Tony Martin led the first chase group.
Two more chase groups followed in furious pursuit. Below: Van Avermaet.
Navardauskas and Bakelants.
Rigoberto Uran and Vansummeren.
Dan Martin.
Last lap!
Despite the on again/off again rain, a great crowd had stayed put to catch the final lap!
Vasil Kiryienka led a 4 man break which included Gautier, Italy and Denmark.
Geschke, Gerrans, and company in the first chase group.
Van Avermaet, Bouhanni, and Navardauskas.
Suffer face from Hansen.
I ran as fast as I could to get to the finish. It was pretty packed all along the course so I climbed a billboard near the podium and waited. If I contorted myself and then craned my neck a little more, I could see the final kilometers on a big screen. I held my breath listening to the commentary from Juan Mari Guajardo and Anthony McCrossan. Kiryienka's group had been eaten up and now attacks were flying from Kwiatkowski, Rodriguez, Gilbert, Valverde and others! With about 4k to go, Kwiatkowski quietly grabbed a few seconds and never looked back. The young Polish rider crossed the finish line just ahead of Gerrans and Valverde to claim the title of World Champion! Below: Cancellara, Michael Matthews, and Navardauskas catch their breaths after a frantic finish 7 seconds behind the gold medalist.
Howes, Kristoff, and Edvald Boassen Hagen.
Happily the storms never materialized but the rain came back with a vengeance within minutes of the race's end and everyone cracked open an umbrella.
No, really, everyone.
For the third time in 3 straight years, Valverde received the bronze medal. Gerrans has had a phenomenal season–starting with winning the Australian national championships and the Tour Down Under, all the way to pulling off the first ever double victory at the GPCQM 2 weeks ago–but the Aussie was disappointed to have lost the Worlds by 1 second.
Standing on the podium, Kwiatkowski still couldn't believe it! He kept cupping his face in his hands as if he didn't know what he'd see when he opened his eyes again.
The podium: 1st Michal Kwiatkowski, 2nd Simon Gerrans, 3rd Alejandro Valverde.
I have to say it: Three cheers for Poland!