Cycling: The Road World Championships in Ponferrada ended today with the 254-kilometer race for professionals. And in the end they saw a deserved winner. One who put his heart in his hand to keep the competition at bay with a solo - Michal Kwiatkowski.
The race was initially dominated by a leading group of four around the Croatian Martin Kvasina. As in the previous year, the drivers had to fight their way through the rain right from the start. However, the quartet did a good job: they were more than 15 minutes ahead of the field led by Poland. The deficit was also due to a crash involving Vincenzo Nibali, among others.
In the field, the drivers only got serious from the middle of the race. With 100 kilometers to go, the gap was still 9:30 minutes, barely XNUMX kilometers later the front runners were in position and Italy increased the number of strokes.
A new leading group dominated the race over the next few kilometers, including Tony Martin and Simon Geschke, Italian Giovanni Visconti and Briton Peter Kennaugh.
In the meantime, Martin tried to break away from the group, but his advance only made clear the disagreement in the group, which was stopped again at the beginning of the penultimate lap, just under thirty kilometers from the finish line.
Visconti and Kennaugh tried to stay ahead of the pack but their escape was over on the first of the two climbs of the World Championship round in Ponferrada.
At this point, the field still comprised more than 80 drivers, which meant that the next attack was not long in coming. Alessandro DeMarchi (Italy), Michael Valgren (Denmark) and Cyril Gautier (France) quickly opened up a 20 second lead.
Vasil Kirienka tried to drive forward from the field. However, the Belarusian's attack forced the field into further attacks. Sep Vanmarcke (Belgium), William Clarke (Australia), Jonathan Castroviejo (Spain), Michael Albasini (Switzerland) and a few other drivers increased the pace, while the field, in which John Degenkolb was present, was now 50 seconds behind featured the top trio.
18 kilometers before the Zeil, Kirienka was able to catch up with the leaders. The pursuers had 36 seconds at the penultimate finish, the field followed eight seconds behind.
With 12 kilometers to go, the lead had shrunk to 18 seconds. Paul Martens, who was on the lookout for Degenkolb, was now increasingly seen in the German team.
A total of 10 riders tackled the final 62 kilometers. Before the last climb, it was Michal Kwiatkowski who provided the top quartet and immediately increased the number of strokes. As a soloist he tackled the final five kilometers as Spain took control of the field.
Kwiatkowski had 18 seconds out on the field when Joaquim Rodriguez and Philippe Gilbert attacked. Simon Gerrans and Alejandro Valverde followed on her rear wheel. But they did not succeed in confronting the Poles up to the top of the pass.
With a lead of eight seconds, Kwiatkowski went into the last three kilometers. Behind was a group of Gilbert, Gerrans, Valverde and Greg van Avermaet. The lead was enough for the 24-year-old Pole to celebrate Poland's first World Cup title on the home stretch. Behind them, Gerrans was second, Valverde was third like last year and was on a World Championship podium for the sixth time. A few seconds later, John Degenkolb led the field across the line in ninth place.
“I felt really good at the end. After what the team did today I saw that the favorites were waiting for the last climb so I thought it would be good to attack beforehand”, Kwiatkoswki described his success at the finish.