Annemiek van Vleuten stuns the Worlds to snatch road race title with last-gasp attack

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Annemiek van Vleuten pulled off a spectacular late attack to win the Elite Women’s Road Race at the UCI Road World Championships, despite racing with a fractured elbow.

The Dutchwoman, who had crashed badly and was injured in the team time trial event just three days before, dug deep to ambush her rivals in the final kilometre and take a hugely memorable solo win.

The 164.3-kilometre event, from Helensburgh to Wollongong, looked to be coming down to a small bunch sprint of 13 riders as the race regrouped in the finale. 

But Van Vleuten, who'd spent the day working for teammate Marianne Vos, suddenly soared away with a seated acceleration to claim her second world title after Yorkshire in 2019. 

Second place went to Lotte Kopecky (Belgium), who must have seen the rainbow jersey flash before her eyes when her group came back to the front in the closing kilometres, while Silvia Persico (Italy) rounded out the podium.

With medals on offer for both the women’s elite and the U23 category in the same race, Niamh Fisher-Black (New Zealand), 12th across the line, is the first ever U23 champion. Pfeiffer Georgi (Great Britain) claimed the silver medal in that category and Ricarda Bauernfeind (Germany) the bronze.

In the senior medals, Van Vleuten took a long time to absorb her latest success in a season that has already seen the 39-year-old take the Giro Donne, the Tour de France Femmes and the Challenge by la Vuelta, but which looked to be ending on a low key note after her bad crash and injury on Wednesday.

"I’m still waiting for the moment for someone to tell me it’s not true,” Van Vleuten said afterwards.

Van Vleuten graphically described riding with her elbow injury as “hell”, and that she couldn’t ride out of the saddle or make a move on the climbs as planned. She reverted to domestique duty for Vos, and was dropped when the race exploded on the final two ascents of Mt Pleasant. 

However, when her group of eight riders came back to a leading quintet in the closing kilometres, an opportunity suddenly arose. Van Vleuten took off, seated, head down, and didn't look back. Behind, no one reacted, and by the time they did it was too late. 

“I had such a different plan beforehand. Today I was just a domestique with a broken elbow. And now I’m world champion."

How it unfolded

The 126-rider strong peloton rolled out of Helensburgh in Dharawal country with black bib numbers demarking the U23 riders from the elites. Non-starters included Dutchwoman Demi Vollering,  and the Austrian sisters Christina and Kathrin Schweinberger, all reported as having COVID-19.

Once the flag was dropped to start the racing, there were no immediate attacks as the bunch was initially content to roll along. Finally, Elewna Hartmann (Switzerland) was the first rider to move and was quickly followed by Coralie Demay of France. The move forced a reaction from the bunch but it was all gruppo compatto by the time the peloton rode over the scenic Sea Cliff Bridge as the glistening waves of the Tasman Sea crashed into the rocks below.

It was another Swiss and French move, this time Nicole Kohler and Coralie Demay, that animated the early stages as the race passed through the small seaside towns of Coledale, Austinmer, and Thirroul. Gladys Verhulst then tried again for the French and quickly built a lead, managing to cross the finish line 1:30 ahead of the bunch. 

Back in the main group, meanwhile, Australia, Poland, Great Britain and Germany headed the field while TV picked up Van Vleuten at the back of the peloton, struggling to get out of the saddle due to her broken elbow, before she rejoined her teammates and quickly started to set the tempo.

Big crowds, including a running banana, greeted Verhulst on Mt Keira, but her advantage at the top of the climb was 26 seconds over a reduced chasing peloton. Van Vleuten, still in he role of domestique, set the pace while U23 teammate Shirin van Anrooij was distanced off the back of the peloton.

After Van Vleuten’s hard work, with later contributions from Italy, caused serious inroads on Verhult’s lead, the Frenchwoman was reeled in on the wet descent off Mt Keira. A short unwritten truce that then followed was broken by the attack by the trio of Julie Van de Velde (Belgium) as well as U23 riders Elynor Bäckstedt (Great Britain) and Caroline Andersonn (Sweden). 

The three European riders quickly pulled out a 1:30 minute lead as the race entered the six laps of the city circuit. Andersonn was unable to stay with Bäckstedt and Van de Velde over Mt Pleasant, but linked up with counter-attacker Aude Biannic (France) so that the race took on a two-two-114 formation. 

With four laps to race, the duo of Andersonn and Biannic were reeled in, only for the breakaway’s chances to flicker briefly back into life a when Elena Cecchini jumped across to the duo. This Italian move forced a reaction from the Dutch, Australian and French teams and strung out the chase group before the trio were caught at 54.5km from the line.

The final hour

Host nation Australia gave it their best shot to shake things up courtesy of Amanda Spratt, Brodie Champion and Grace Brown, and culminating in Sarah Roy jumping away as a heavy rain shower began to hammer down at the start of the penultimate lap.

However, what looked to be the first possibly definitive move came shortly afterwards as Paris-Roubaix winner Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy) and Liane Lippert (Germany) gained a few metres on Cecile Uttrup Ludwig (Denmark), Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Poland) and Ashleigh Moolman (South Africa). The five fused together, gained around a dozen seconds advantage, and even as the rain briefly teemed down, the race tempo began to liven up.

This group was clearly too dangerous to let gain much time for Holland and Australia, so Van Vleuten and teammate Ellen van Dijk duly pulled things together with around 13 kilometres to go. However, their hard work seemed to have been in vain when Marlen Reusser made a daring, full-blooded solo move for Switzerland.

The bronze medallist in the Worlds time trial put her skills on full display as she managed to carve open a gap of some 20 seconds. But a huge acceleration on the final ascent of the increasingly decisive Mount Pleasant climb in the bunch saw her reeled in again.

In a strong case of deja vu, exactly the same five riders that attacked on the previous lap - Longo Borghini, Lippert, Ludwi, Niewiadoma, and Moolman all went clear for a second time. 

Once again, this seemed like a definitive move, particularly as the bunch behind had shattered to fewer than a dozen chasers. However, very strong turns from the Swiss and from sole Cuban rider, Arlenis Sierra, along with hesitation in the lead, saw a regrouping in the closing few kilometres. 

A sprint from a group of 13 seemed inevitable, with Kopecky the fastest on paper. Van Vleuten, though, clearly thought otherwise.  

Seated due to her broken elbow, she clipped away from the back of the group in the last kilometre for one of the most memorable victories of an already hugely memorable career.

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