Both pre-race favourites Simon Gerrans and Alejandro Valverde had to settle for lower podium spots, forced to acknowledge the superiority of ten years younger Michał Kwiatkowski. However, they refused to give up on the fight and promised to battle the new World Champion in the upcoming Ardennes classics over the years to come.

The podium of this year’s World Championship road race was made exclusively of Ardennes specialists. This spring, both Gerrans and Valverde managed to beat Kwiatkowski on their way to victories in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Fleche Wallonne respectively, but it was the 24-year old Pole Omega Pharma – Quick Step rider who took the biggest of them all and will ride in the rainbow jersey next twelve months.

Full of praise for tactical astuteness of the young Pole, the Orica-GreenEDGE rider admitted that he couldn’t do much to prevent his gutsy attack on Sunday. Despite being a whole decade older, however, Gerrans predicted a lot more battles to be fought in one-day races between the trio, as he has extended a contract with the Australian outfit for three more years.

“Obviously Michal has a few more years ahead of him than Alejandro and I,” said Gerrans, who won another spring classic, Milano-Sanremo, in 2012.

“The three of us have had some great battles this year, but Alejandro has renewed his contract for three years and I’ve done the same thing so I think we’ll have a few more great battles in the years to come.”

Valverde, who also extended contract with Movistar for three more seasons, totally agreed with his Australian rival.

“I’ve signed for the team for another three years. I’ll always fight and keep going with ambition,” said Valverde, a double winner of Liege, Fleche, and the Clásica de San Sebastián.

“Kwiatkowski’s a great rider, I told him that before the race and again after the race. He’s tactically very strong; he has great potential; he’s a dangerous rider.

“He’s younger than us and, as Simon said, he’ll have more opportunities, but I think we’ll still be around for a lot longer to make things hard for him.”