Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) gave a display of his multi-facetted talent earlier today as he added the junior road race world title to his cyclo-cross crown thanks to an overwhelming assault on the final ascent of Via Salviati. Subsequently the Dutchman soloed to the finish alone and even found the time to zip his jersey and pull out a Dutch flag and celebrate in some style.

 

Mads Pedersen continued Denmark’s success at the Worlds as he won the sprint for second place three seconds after van der Poel, while Iltjan Nika won the bronze medal for Albania. Logan Owen (USA) finished in fourth place for the second year running just edging out Italy’s Lorenzo Rota.

 

It would seem that cycling talent runs in the family for van der Poel who is the son of former professional and cyclo-cross world champion Adri van der Poel and he is the grandson of French legend Raymond Poulidor.

 

"This is special because it's my first international title on the road," van der Poel said when talking to the tv-reporters immediately after the finish.

 

"My attack was not prepared but I felt it was the moment to go. My dad gives me some advice but then I'm the one who has to race."

 

Without much ado van der Poel left European champion Franck Bonnamour (France) on the vertical gradients of Via Salviati and sustained a lead of 12 seconds as he crested the summit of the ascent. Despite being vigorously chased by a group of 22 riders van der Poel managed to remain clear to win by three seconds at the finish.

"The race was long at 140km and so I opted to wait till the end. It was a technical descent, so I was able to reach the Frenchman on the descent and then get away," he explained.

 

Winning the world road race title won’t make van der Poel to shift his focus away from cyclo-cross for at least the next four years, though.

 

"I enjoy cyclo-cross more than road races so I'm going to focus on that for now but I will do some road races too. I've got a team already," he said.

 

"Boom and Stybar did cyclo-cross before switching to the road and they’re idols for me, so they prove you don’t have to make the change right now. There's time."

 

Results

1 Mathieu van Der Poel (Netherlands)        3:33:14            

2 Mads Pedersen (Denmark)                           0:00:03            

3 Iltjan Nika (Albania)                                         

4 Logan Owen (United States Of America)                                                          

5 Lorenzo Rota (Italy)                                         

6 Lucas Eriksson (Sweden)                               

7 Scott Davies (Great Britain)                                                       

8 Artem Nych (Russian Federation)                                          

9 Sergey Shemyakin (Kazakhstan)                                             

10 Benjamin Brkic (Austria)                                                         

11 Lorenzo Fortunato (Italy)                                                        

12 Gracjan Szelag (Poland)                               

13 Anatoliy Budyak (Ukraine)                                                     

14 Anders Skaarseth (Norway)                                                    

15 Daniel Martínez (Colombia)                                                    

16 Aliaksandr Riabushenko (Belarus)                                       

17 Victor Langellotti (Monaco)                                                    

18 Piotr Konwa (Poland)                                   

19 Robert Power (Australia)                                                         

20 Franck Bonnamour (France)                                                  

21 Jonas Abrahamsen (Norway)                                                 

22 Alessandro Fedeli (Italy)                             0:00:08            

23 Caio Godoy Ormenese (Brazil)                                              

24 Simone Velasco (Italy)    0:01:00            

25 Christoffer Lisson (Denmark)                   0:01:09            

26 Matic Safaric Kolar (Slovenia)                                                

27 Julian Schulze (Germany)                                                        

28 Geoffrey Curran (United States Of America)                                                

29 José Santoyo (Mexico)                                  

30 Evgeny Kobernyak (Russian Federation)                                                      

31 Juan Felipe Osorio (Colombia)                                               

32 Sam Oomen (Netherlands)                                                      

33 Pietro Andreoletti (Italy)                            0:02:05            

34 Mark Padun (Ukraine)     0:02:07            

35 Laurens De Plus (Belgium)                                                      

36 Daniel Fitter (Australia)  0:02:24            

37 Kristjan Kumar (Slovenia)                          0:02:40            

38 Piet Allegaert (Belgium)                              

39 Nikolay Cherkasov (Russian Federation)   0:03:34            

41 Stef Krul (Netherlands)   0:03:57            

42 Nathan Van Hooydonck (Belgium)                                      

43 David Rivière (France)                                 

44 Rémy Rochas (France)    0:03:59            

45 Yonas Tekeste Haile (Eritrea)                                                

46 William Barta (United States Of America)                                                     

47 Alex Aranburu (Spain)                                  

48 Kristian Aasvold (Norway)                                                      

49 Patrick Müller (Switzerland)                                                  

50 Mathias Van Gompel (Belgium)                                             

51 Julien Van Den Brande (Belgium)                                         

52 Yerlan Pernebekov (Kazakhstan)                                         

53 Jhonatan Casillas (Mexico)                                                       

54 Gregely Varró (Hungary)                                                          

55 Stylianos Farantakis (Greece)                   0:04:05            

56 Seid Lizde (Italy)                0:04:07            

57Adrian Auerbacher (Germany)                  0:04:14            

58 Andrej Petrovski (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia)              0:05:48            

59 Marco König (Germany) 0:06:11            

60 Juraj Bellan (Slovakia)                                  

61 Ryan Cavanagh (Australia)                                                      

62 Tom Wirtgen (Luxembourg)                                                  

63 Amanuel Mengis Ghebreindrias (Eritrea)                         0:06:17            

64 Elie Gesbert (France)       0:06:31            

65 Ivan Garcia Cortina (Spain)                        0:06:36            

66 Yevgeniy Gidich (Kazakhstan)                                               

67 Zeke Mostov (United States Of America)                                                       

68 Pontus Kastemyr (Sweden)                       0:06:38            

69 Davy Gunst (Netherlands)                          0:07:00            

70 Gustav Höög (Sweden)                                 

71 Abderrahmane Bechlagheme (Algeria)                              

72 Marius Sylta (Norway)                                 

73 Jonas Gregaard (Denmark)                                                      

74 Mykyta Zubenko (Ukraine)                                                     

75 Áquila Roux (Brazil)         0:07:54            

76 Gaspar Gonçalves (Portugal)                     0:09:04            

77 Thomas Terrettaz (Switzerland)             0:09:10            

78 David Ribeiro (Portugal)                             0:09:45            

79 Lennard Kämna (Germany)                                                    

80 Michael Svendgaard (Denmark)              0:10:17            

81Aleksandr Komin (Russian Federation)                              

82 Petter Theodorsen (Norway)                                                 

83 Magnus Klaris (Denmark)                                                        

84 Martin Schäppi (Switzerland)                                                

85 Michal Paluta (Poland)                                 

86 Andrejs Podans (Latvia)                              

87 Pita Cristian David (Ecuador)                                                

88 Stepan Kurianov (Russian Federation)                               

89 Matias Arriagada (Chile)                              

90 Stepan Kochurov (Russian Federation)                                                          

91 Gordian Banzer (Liechtenstein)                                            

92 Vladislav Galyanov (Uzbekistan)                                          

93 Ekke-Kaur Vosman (Estonia)                                                 

94 Dzmitry Zhyhunou (Belarus)                                                 

95 David Per (Slovenia)                                     

96 Onur Balkan (Turkey)                                  

97 Mario Stock (Austria)                                    

98 Eduardo Estrada (Colombia)                                                  

99 Yam Poliak (Israel)                                        

100 Ryan Felgate (South Africa)                                                  

101 Juan Camacho Del Fresno (Spain)                                      

102 Jaap De Jong (Netherlands)                                                   

103 Hampus Anderberg (Sweden)                0:10:50            

104 William Elliott (Canada)                           0:11:01            

105 Dmitriy Rive (Kazakhstan)                      0:11:33            

106 Saya Kuroeda (Japan)    0:12:25            

107 Linas Rumšas (Lithuania)                                                      

108 Uladzimir Gorohovik (Belarus)             0:12:28            

109 Larry Valvasori (Luxembourg)                                           

110 Abderrahmane Mansouri (Algeria)      0:12:31            

111 Rémi Aubert (France)   0:12:35            

112 Aurélien Paret-Peintre (France)                                         

113 Michal Schlegel (Czech Republic)                                      

114 Lukas Schlemmer (Austria)                     0:13:14            

115 Florian Schipflinger (Austria)                                              

116 Matthew Gibson (Great Britain)             0:13:17            

117 James Knox (Great Britain)                    0:13:22            

118 Tao Geoghegan Hart (Great Britain)                                 

119 Mateusz Kazimierczak (Poland)             0:13:27            

120 Eric Süßemilch (Germany)                                                   

121 Atsushi Oka (Japan)                               0:14:46            

122 Vasili Strokov (Belarus)                          0:14:51            

123 János Pelikán (Hungary)                         0:14:55            

124 Brent Luyckx (Belgium)                           0:15:02            

125 Ayden Toovey (Australia)                                                     

126 Mathias Rask Jeppesen (Denmark)                                   

127Ben Ganon (Israel)                                   0:15:05            

128 Luc Turchi (Luxembourg)                        0:17:30            

129 Edward Dunbar (Ireland)                         0:17:44