World Cycling Championships 2019 Yorkshire: Mads Pedersen wins rainbow jersey

Mads Pedersen succeeds Alejandro Valverde in the wet and exhausting road race in Yorkshire. The Dane outsprints his fellow attackers Matteo Trentin and Stefan Küng in Harrogate. (Slideshow route/profile)

Results road race men-Worlds 2019

1. Mads Pedersen (den)
2. Matteo Trentin (ita) s.t.
3. Stefan Küng (swi) + 0.02
4. Gianni Moscon (ita) + 0.17
5. Peter Sagan (svk) + 0.43
6. Michael Valgren (den) + 0.45
7. Alexander Kristoff (nor) + 1.10
8. Greg Van Avermaet (bel) s.t.
9. Gorka Izagirre (spa) s.t.
10. Rui Costa (por) s.t.

Race report
Jan Polanc, Richard Carapaz and Jonas Koch open up a gap at kilometre 20, while Nairo Quintana, Primoz Roglic, Magnus Cort, Maciej Bodnar, Silvan Dillier, Petr Vakoc, Hugo Houle, and Alex Howes bridge across. The eleven race to a maximum lead of more than 4 minutes. The gap is down to 1.30 minutes when the riders move through the finish for the first time.

While pre-race favourite Philippe Gilbert crashes out of contention, the peloton brings back the lead group in the first lap on the local circuit. In the following laps the race turns into a war of attrition. Valverde, Evenepoel, Ulissi, Roglic, Quintana, Jungels, Mohoric, Carapaz, Dan Martin… their chances vanish into thin air, while Sam Bennett and Kasper Asgreen also drop back on a climb with 75 kilometres remaining.

When Lawson Craddock strikes, Stefan Küng joins him. The duo moves 20 seconds ahead of the peloton through the finish with four laps to go. Lutsenko is the next rider to call it a day.

Mads Pedersen jumps to the leaders and pushes on. Küng goes with him, while Mike Teunissen rejoins Craddock to leave the American behind. The Dutchman tracks the leaders down just before the passage on the line. Gianni Moscon also bridges across.

Nils Politt attacks with Dylan Teuns and Felix Grossschartner, while Mathieu van der Poel closes down the gap with Matteo Trentin. The duo pushes on hard. Not all of the attackers are able to follow the pace and a new lead group takes shape: Moscon, Trentin, Van der Poel, Küng and Pedersen.

The five leaders widen the gap in the penultimate lap. They cross the line for the last round with a lead of 50 seconds before Van der Poel drops back with 11 kilometres remaining. Lights out for the pre-race favourite.

Küng sets the pace on the last climb of the day. Moscon can’t follow while Pedersen seems to be struggling. However, the 23-year-old Dane holds on and when Trentin opens the sprint to the line with a powerful jump he counters. It appears that the Italian has nothing left in his legs and Pedersen comes across to win the rainbow jersey with a few bike lengths.

Another interesting read: route road race World Championships 2019 Yorkshire