UCI Road World Championships | Australia’s Michael Matthews wins bronze in nail-biting finish
A surging run from Michael Matthews has earnt the Australian third place in a spectacular finish to the UCI Road World Championships in Wollongong.
Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel won the Men’s Elite Road Race, completing the 266.9 km race in 6:16:8s and leaving the frenetic fight for second in his wake.
Less than one kilometre from the finish line, Mattias Jensen, Lorenzo Rota, Mauro Schmid, and Alexey Lutsenko jockeyed over the final two places on the podium.
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The chasing peloton lay another minute behind the group. However, when the podium contenders began to baulk, the peloton soon found themselves in sight of the podium just a few hundred metres from the finish.
Jan Tratnik was the first to make a move as he rose to second, but it was French rider Christophe Laporte who would lead the tightly packed second group across the line with Matthews alongside.
The win capped off a stellar 2022 for Evenepoel, who only two weeks ago won the Vuelta a España among several other event wins this year.
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“I think it’s something that I have been dreaming of,” said Evenepoel.
“And then now, after a monument, a big classic, a grand tour, now world champion, I think I won everything I could this year. I think a better season like this, I will never have.
“A big party I can say. I’m not going to see my bed I guess.”
Evenepoel, who won the junior 2018 UCI Road World Championships in Austria, said the top drawer win sits far above his last title win.
“It’s phenomenal,” said Evenepoel.
“I cannot compare this with the juniors. It’s three more hours of racing. It’s much, much harder.
“And also after a super long season, it’s amazing to finish like this. I’m just super happy I had the legs today.”
The 22-year-old decided to skip away from the field with two laps remaining, establishing a lead that would remain unchallenged to the end.
Evenepoel had been riding in tandem with Lutsenko of Kazakhstan, but said he felt he had the legs to skip away.
“When you’re in two, you just want to work [together] as long as possible,” he explained.
“I felt quite quickly that I was stronger than Alexey and I just wanted to go along because there was no time to waste on a circuit like this.
“The last time, the climb was super hard. I could feel my legs really, really explode. I know on the top it was almost over and it was a long downhill, then a 5km flat part down to the finish.
“They always came to tell me that my advantage was getting bigger and bigger, so that’s why I kept pushing. It’s a World Championship, you don’t to lose any second, you just want to win the jersey if you’re in the position for it.”
The 2023 UCI Road World Championships will form part of the all-new UCI Cycling World Championships.
The UCI Cycling World Championships will be held every four years in the year prior to the Summer Olympic Games.
The inaugural edition will take place in Glasgow, Scotland on August 3-13 and includes the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships and UCI Track Cycling World Championships among other titles.
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