Cavendish wins Worlds road race. A long time coming.

//Cavendish wins Worlds road race. A long time coming.

Cavendish wins Worlds road race. A long time coming.

Cavendish tops in Copenhagen.

The clock says it took Mark Cavendish five hours and forty minutes to win the World Championship Road Race in Copenhagen. The British sprinter will tell you it took far longer than that.

“We knew three years ago when this course was announced, that it could be good for us. We put a plan together to come with the best group of guys to this race and to come away from it with the rainbow jersey,” said Cavendish. “It’s been three years in the making.”

We can’t say how long Italian coach Paolo Bettini was race planning for Copenhagen. Probably not three years. Hard to say what kind of time the Australians put in but Matthew Goss was strong enough for second. Everybody else will have a year to evaluate whether some extra planning time would have been a benefit.

The British team rode a dominant and masterful race, controlling the action for almost the entire 260 kilometers. Bradley Wiggins and David Millar killed every break and Ian Stannard put in a massive ride to bring Cavendish forward.

Yet despite the three years of planning it still took a brilliant ride by Cavendish to pick his way through high speed traffic and find the smallest of gaps on the ride hand-side barrier. The last 150 meters were signature Cav — an explosive acceleration that reveals all pretenders.

“We had eight of the best guys in the world, and this is the first time we’ve come together. They were incredible. They took the race on from start to finish and we won. I can’t believe it,” said the Boy Racer.

Germany’s Andre Greipel barely edged Fabian Cancellara for third place and everyone else if off the podium and wondering what exactly went wrong. There will plenty of heated discussions and one killer party in Copenhagen tonight. As Wiggins tweeted: “I think its safe to say tonight we are all going to get shitfaced! Lock and load.”

The 2015 World Championship Road Race will be held in Richmond, Virginia. That’s over three years for Team USA and Tyler Farrar to make plans. Cavendish would tell them — now is a god time to start.

By |2019-02-03T16:15:54-08:00September 25th, 2011|Uncategorized|4 Comments

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4 Comments

  1. Higgins September 25, 2011 at 12:42 pm - Reply

    One of the greatest displays of modern cycling, a carbon copy of the HTC model, a strong team controlling the race with the best sprinter in the world to finish the job. I feel privileged to have watched it happen.

    • TwistedSpoke September 27, 2011 at 12:36 pm - Reply

      Higgins, they showed everyone in the worlds what an entire motivated team could accomplish. A well-earned triumph. Matt

  2. Pal September 25, 2011 at 1:39 pm - Reply

    I like the typos at the end. Let us hope that the folks of Richmond will be 'roaring' and rooting for the home team, and perhaps it will take a bit of prayer to 'God' as well as good planning to pull it off in three years.

    • TwistedSpoke September 27, 2011 at 12:37 pm - Reply

      Quality typos are one of the thinks that set Twisted Spoke apart from your average cycling blog that settles for good grammar and no mistakes. Matt

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