World Cycling Championships 2022: Evenepoel solos to rainbow stripes

foto: Cor VosRemco Evenepoel attacks from the lead group with two laps to go before he drops his fellow-attackers Alexey Lutsenko with 26 kilometres remaining. The Flemish youngster solos in commanding style to the rainbow jersey. Christophe Laporte and Michael Matthews sprint to silver and bronze. (Slideshow route/profile)

Results 2022 World Cycling Championships

1. Remco Evenepoel (bel)
2. Christophe Laporte (fra) + 2.21
3. Michael Matthews (aus) s.t.
4. Wout van Aert (bel) s.t.
5. Matteo Trentin (ita) s.t.
6. Alexander Kristoff (nor) s.t.
7. Peter Sagan (svk) s.t.
8. Alberto Bettiol (ita) s.t.
9. Ethan Hayter (gbr) s.t.
10. Mattias Jensen (den) s.t.

Race report
A group of 11 riders establishes the breakaway after more than 10 kilometres of action. Jaka Primozic, Simon Pellaud, Pier-André Coté, James Fouché, Lukasz Owsian, Michael Kurkle, Emils Liepins, Scott McGill, Juraj Sagan, Bilguunjargal Erdenebat, Guy Sagiv and Nicolas Sessler put 6 minutes into the peloton.

Mathieu van der Poel abandons before Mount Keira, while France sets the pace in the climb to bring down the gap fast. Moreover, the peloton splits. Five Frenchmen are on board, as are Van Aert and Pogacar, but title defender Alaphilippe is not there. The first peloton reaches Wollongong 3 minutes behind the lead group with the second peloton 2 minutes further behind.

Luke Plapp, Ben O’Connor, Pavel Sivakov, Pieter Serry and Samuele Battistella escape from the first peloton. The five reach the finish line – with still 11 laps to go – 1.30 minutes behind the lead group. Moments later the two pelotons come together.

The race enters a quiet phase in which the deficit of the peloton extends to 8 minutes. The group O’Connor/Sivakov rejoins the lead group with 152 kilometres remaining.

The lead group is down to eight riders inside the last 77 kilometres, while a group with Evenepoel, Quintana, Bardet, Pacher, Schmid, Hindley, Powless, Tratnik, Jensen, Rota and Lutsenko escape from the peloton. They catch the lead group one lap later. The new leaders cross the line 2.12 minutes ahead of the peloton.

Evenepoel accelerates with 2 laps to go with Lutsenko in his wheel. The Vuelta winner goes solo on Mount Pleasant and he crosses the line for the penultimate time with a lead of 46 seconds.

The 22-year old Belgian powers to victory to succeed Julian Alaphilippe, while the peloton overhauls the chasers in the last 200 metres. Laporte outsprints Matthews to take silver.

Another interesting read: route road race 2022 World Cycling Championships.