RR Men@2010 Road WCH

2010 UCI Road World Championships: Thor Hushovd, a Norwegian set to conquer Australia

The last day of the UCI World Championships has offered a magnificent show to the enormous crowd which welcomed the peloton on the Geelong circuit, after the race had started a few hours earlier in the centre of Melbourne.

The most anticipated event of the week, which benefited from ideal conditions, was dominated by a five- rider breakaway. They attacked in the first few kilometres and took advantage of the lethargy of the chasing bunch to accumulate a 23-minute advantage.

After the first four of the 11 laps, for a total distance of 257 km, the main teams organised their reaction, and the Italian and Spanish squads drove the pace to gradually reduce the gap.

Thus, all the favourites — except for the Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara, winner of the time trial — remained in the leading group coming into the last lap. And if we thought Philippe Gilbert’s attack was the decisive move of the day, in reality the race had a lot more to offer still, for what proved to be the most exciting World Championship in recent years.

After they caught the Belgian rider, the chasing group split up several times, however none of these moves succeeded.

Finally the title was decided was decided in a bunch sprint. With all the power we could expect of him, Thor Hushovd crossed the line in front of Matti Breschel (DEN) and Allan Davis (AUS). Davis, along with Cadel Evans, won over the Australian crowd with their generosity during the most turbulent end heated parts of the race. Amongst the losers: the Italian Filippo Pozzato, 4th, the Spanish Oscar Freire, 6th, and the Russian Alexandr Kolobnev, 7th after a silver medal in Mendrisio.

It is the first time ever that a Norwegian rider wins a UCI World Road Championship, and Hushovd’s success is a fair reward for such a consistent athlete. Hushovd certainly deserves the rainbow jersey he conquered in Geelong. Scandinavian cycling has lived a memorable day in Australia asBreschel’s silver medal also promotes ideally the 2011 UCI World Championships in Copenhagen.

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