Peter Sagan won his second consecutive world title in the elite men's race at the UCI Road World Championships in Doha Sunday. The Slovakian proved to be the fastest of a small group sprint, winning the slightly uphill drag to the line ahead of Mark Cavendish (Great Britain) and Tom Boonen (Belgium).
The race broke apart through crosswinds in the desert. Although there was an initial breakaway in place, the dominant Belgium team pushed the pace through the winds that resulted in a series of race favourites breaking off the front of the field and bridging up to the breakaway, creating what was the winning move of the day.
Sprinters who missed the decisive split were Marcel Kittel and Andre Greipel from Germany, Caleb Ewan from Australia and Nacer Bouhanni from France.
The front group did include the likes of Sagan, Cavendish and Boonen, along with Alexander Kristoff (Norway), Elia Viviani (Italy), Michael Matthews (Australia) and Olympic gold medallist Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium).
The Belgians set up Boonen for the final sprint but in the mixed dash to the line, it was Sagan who came out the champion for a second year in a row.
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