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Great Dane: Pedersen survives brutal conditions to win Denmark’s first elite men’s road race world title

No Canadians among the 46 who finished the race

September 29, 2019
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Racing through the most arduous conditions imaginable, Mads Pedersen earned Denmark’s first elite men’s road race world title on Sunday, winning from a trio in Harrowgate, Yorkshire. Whoever bet on the 23-year-old Dane who rides for Trek-Segafredo won a fat stack. Despite Hugo Houle’s presence in the soggy early breakaway, none of the six Canadians were among the 46 men who finished the race.

Except for Saturday’s epic elite women’s road race, the Yorkshire 2019 Road World Championships were lashed by heavy rain. The Dutch won the medal count with eight, but the U.S.A. earned the most gold medals, taking three championships.

The Course Changes

Originally, the elite men’s route was supposed to be 284.5-km with seven climbs of the 13.9-km Harrowgate circuit. However, torrential rain and strong winds demanded that the route was diverted so that the climbs of Buttertubs and Grinton Moor were bypassed. Two 13.9-km passages of the Harrowgate circuit were added to the original seven. The new course was 261 wet kilometres.



Early Breakaway

Canada’s Hugo Houle was in the early breakaway with Vuelta a España champion Primož Roglič, Giro winner Richard Carapaz and Nairo Quintana.

The conditions were atrocious.

On the first few circuits dozens of riders, including most of the early breakaways, climbed off their bikes. The reigning champion Alejandro Valverde had seen enough. Belgian favourites Philippe Gilbert and Remco Evenepoel dropped out, Gilbert after a crash. Canadians Guillaume Boivin and Antoine Duchesne packed it in too. With 85 km to go, Michael Woods was still in the front group, while Ben Perry was 1:15 behind.

Gilbert and Evenepoel commiserated.

With 75 km and 5.5 laps remaining, there was a peloton of 90 strung-out, sodden riders left. First France and then Italy and the Netherlands turned on the gas to thin out the pack.

On Lap 5 Lawson Craddock (U.S.A.) attacked, joined by Stefan Küng of Switzerland; the duo led the peloton by 20-seconds going into Lap 6. Riders like Geraint Thomas, Alexey Lutsenko and Tadej Pogacar were dropped.

Küng rid himself of Craddock, but Mads Pedersen bridged over. Dutchman Mike Teunessen joined them and Gianni Moscon laboured to make the junction. Michael Woods was trailing the main group with 40-km to go.

A flurry of attacks from the peloton drew the escapees closer. Mathieu van der Poel, Matteo Trentin and Daniel Martinez rushed up the road.

Starting the penultimate lap the Van der Poel-Pedersen-Trentin quintet was 12-seconds ahead of a chasing trio and 25-second in front of the small peloton. The break’s gap back to the peloton increased and the chase trio was absorbed.

The Bell Lap

When they heard the bell, van der Poel, Trentin, Pedersen, Küng and Moscon were 47 seconds clear. Could the two Italians be clever enough to win the race?

Incredibly, van der Poel cracked hard as soon as the final lap began, finishing over 10 minutes down. Moscon started to pull but lost contact on the climb with 5.5 km remaining.

And then there were three.

With Peter Sagan making a late charge behind the trio, Pedersen was in front with 500-metres to go. Trentin opened it up with 200-metres remaining, but Pedersen came around him for a stunning win. Another Dane, Michael Valgren, was fifth.


2019 UCI Road World Championships Elite Men’s Road Race
Gold) Mads Pedersen (Denmark) 6:27:28
Silver) Matteo Trentin (Italy) s.t.
Bronze) Stefan Küng (Switzerland) +0:02