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Michal Kwiatkowski becomes first Polish Elite men’s world champion

September 28, 2014
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Michal Kwiatkowski topped off a fantastic 2014 by winning the UCI Road World Championship Sunday in Ponferrada, Spain, the first Elite men’s gold for a Pole. Kwiatkowski attacked on the final climb of the day to finish ahead of a six-man chase. Kwiatkowski also took a bronze medal in the team time trial with his Omega Pharma-QuickStep squad.

The first escapes of the Elite men’s 255-km race failed, but on the first lap a quartet managed to slip away: Zydrunas Savickas (Lithuania), Matija Kvasina (Croatia), Carlos Quintero (Colombia) and Oleksandr Polivoda (Ukraine). By the 6th of 14 laps the break had 15-minutes on the soggy peloton.

Canadian Christian Meier had to end his race early.

Ryan Anderson and Michael Woods also cut their race short.

The gap was down to 6:20 with 6 laps to go. The wet roads may have contributed to a nasty car crash that involved the Norwegian and Croatian team cars. A Norwegian coach and mechanic went to hospital with fractures.

The Poles did a lot of work at the front of the peloton, so much that four of the squad’s riders packed it in with five laps to go. The Italians took over and the gap plummeted. Once the break was absorbed with 64-km to go, six riders scuttled away on the Confederacion climb.

The situation was fluid for a while, but finally a dozen riders established themselves out front. Tony Martin (Germany) was in the twelve, and he attacked on the downhill of the Mirador to move clear. Late in the 12th lap Martin led the eleven by 19 seconds and the peloton by 32 seconds.

After Martin came back to the escape with just over two laps remaining, the French began to mass at the front of the peloton to diminish the 42-second lead. The break was down to 11 riders and only 80 cyclists from 203 starters were left in the race.

One of the fugitives, Italian Giovanni Visconti, bolted as the field edged closer. Briton Peter Kennaugh joined him with 31-km to go. The race came back together on the Confederacion two kilometres later. Fearful of the sprinters, many riders tried to surge away from the field.

When the race heard the bell, a breakaway consisting of the dynamic Alessandro De Marchi (Italy), Cyril Gautier (France), Michael Valgren Anderson (Denmark) and workhorse Visil Kiryienka (Belarus) had 36 seconds on the peloton. De Marchi upbraided Gautier for not working as they crossed the line that would mark the finish 18.2-km later.

The foursome got down to work as Spain drove the pack and the Italians looked to block. The course’s two climbs loomed large: the mild Confederacion and the short, steep Mirador. No moves came out of the escape and the peloton on the first ascent. The gap was 19-seconds with 11-km remaining.

The Mirador started with 5-km before the finish. The escape’s lead was slight. One of the stars of 2014, Kwiatkowski made the quartet a quintet and then attacked when the road tilted up. Belgian Philippe Gilbert led the chase. The Pole dropped down the other side with Gilbert’s elite sextet in hot pursuit. Kwiatkowski had seven seconds with 2-km to go.

But the Pole would not be denied. Not only is Michal Kwiatkowski the first Polish world champion, but until this season there had only been one Pole on the podium, Zbigniew Spruch’s silver in 2000. Simon Gerrans (Australia) was runner-up and Alejandro Valverde (Spain) climbed his sixth Worlds podium, marking Spain’s first medal of the championships.


2014 UCI Road World Championship Elite Men’s Road Race
1) Michal Kwiatkowski (Poland) 6:29:07
2) Simon Gerrans (Australia) +0:01
3) Alejandro Valverde (Spain) s.t.

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