Stop and go go go: Mathieu van der Poel wins wild, enthralling world championship

It was run at a relentless pace except for an hour when the race was stopped due to a protest, and Sunday’s elite men’s road race at the 2023 Glasgow World Cycling Championships concluded with Mathieu van der Poel pulling on the rainbow jersey, the first Dutchman to do so since Joop Zoetemelk in 1985. He adds a Worlds gold to this season’s cyclocross rainbow jersey, Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix. Van der Poel won out of a high-powered quartet containing his great cyclocross rival Wout Van Aert, double Tour de France winner Tadej Pogačar and 2019 champion Mads Pedersen. Guillaume Boivin was top Canadian in 36th place.

The Course

The elite men used the same corner-filled. 14.5-km Glasgow city course as the Junior women and men on Saturday, but they also had to roll all the way from Edinburgh beforehand, climbing two hills including Crow Hill along the 120 km before 10 laps for a total of 271 km.

The Canadian contingent was Charles-Etienne Cretien, Nick Zukowsky, Ben Perry, Hugo Houle, Guillaume Boivin and Derek Gee.

As soon as the race left Edinburgh, there were multiple attacks and a nontet of fugitives got loose, with two chasing groups in between. Slovenia, France and Belgium pulled the peloton.

With 192 of the 271 km to race, a protest neutralized the race, the protesters having glued themselves to the road. The riders were idle for an hour.

Often protests in races see race go-slow and TV cameras linger on protesters & their slogans, seen this in TdF, Ronde etc. Worlds halted, riders getting cold as police arrive on the scene. But no footage of the protest, seems 4 people glued their hands to tarmac pic.twitter.com/0zRLQyvQXU

— the Inner Ring (@inrng) August 6, 2023

When things restarted and the race reached the two hills, van der Poel found himself on the wrong side of a split in the peloton, but came back.

Glasgow

By the time the nine fugitives entered the city circuit, their lead was 4:00. This is when the race turned into a big ol’ crit. The attacking in the peloton was relentless. The Danes were very active. Near the end of Lap 1, Houle crashed. Derek Gee was one of many who abandoned on the opening circuits.

Sadly, three-time rainbow jersey Peter Sagan abandoned his final World Championship with 110 km to roll.

With 100 km remaining, there were only 40 riders in the peloton. Among them were fellows who all made surges on hills like Montrose Street to try to break things up: Remco Evenepoel, van der Poel and Pogačar.

Six laps remained and the peloton was only 30 strong, with five Belgians. The breakaway, now in dribs and drabs, were within hailing distance. The attacks and accelerations in the peloton continued.

Van der Poel used a curving hill to make a move. Joining in were Van Aert, Pogačar, Mads Pedersen, Alberto Bettiol and Matthew Dinham, one of the day’s escapees.

Going into Lap 6, 70 km remaining, France’s efforts brought back the dangerous move. Pedersen decided to try his luck solo, Belgium pulling him back. The skirmishing continued unabated, and Evenepoel found himself back in a split. However, he moved up and then attacked with more than once with Pedersen. One of the attacks, Bettiol’s, was scuppered when he ran over his own bottle.

Rain started on Lap 7. Bettiol attacked again, and the chasing group was down to 16 riders. The Italian’s gap grew alarming to van der Poel, Evenepoel, Van Aert, Pedersen and Pog. Bettiol hit Montrose Street with a 30-second advantage as the roads strated to dry. Van der Poel, Van Aert, Pogačar and Pedersen seperated themselves from the others in pursuit. Reigning champ Evenepoel drifted off the back of Group 3.

It's looking like no rainbow stripes for @EvenepoelRemco this year..

The defending UCI Road World Champion is dropped.#GlasgowScotland2023 pic.twitter.com/i2UTk116jD

— UCI (@UCI_cycling) August 6, 2023

Bettiol went into the penultimate lap with a 20-second gap and Scottish rain pelting him. When Bettiol was 200 metres away on a hill, van der Poel attacked, flying past the Italian with 22 km to go. No one could hang with the Dutchman, but the Slovenian led the chase.

With 16.5 km to race, van der Poel crashed in a corner and broke his right shoe. But he got up and carried on with a 27-second advantage. The crowd screamed him on.

The Dutchman’s lead was over a half minute going into the bell lap. He was just too good, too strong to be caught by the trailing trio, which started thinking about the podium. Van Aert was the runner-up and Pog beat the Dane for the final step.

Only 51 riders finishes, and Zukowsky and Boivin were among them.

The road schedule takes a breather on Monday before the team time trial mixed relay on Tuesday.

2023 Road Race World Championships, Elite Men
1) Mathieu van der Poel (The Netherlands) 6:07:27
2) Wout Van Aert (Belgium) +1:38
3) Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia) +1:45
36) Guillaume Boivin (Canada) +13:59
40) Nick Zukowsky (Canada) +14:06