The Ponferrada Worlds got underway last Sunday morning with the elite women’s team time trial. Since the discipline was reintroduced to the Worlds in 2012 — with trade teams instead of nationals teams that once contested it — Specialized-Lululemon has dominated, winning in Valkenberg and in Florence. The American-registered team was too strong again in this year’s race, winning comfortably ahead of Orica-AIS and Astana-BePink. Podium favourites Rabo-Liv crashed out of the race in dramatic fashion, with Annemiek van Vleuten and Anna van der Breggen both taken to hospital as a result.
Omega Pharma-QuickStep went into the men’s TTT as hot favourites having won the past two editions of the event as well. But on the day it was BMC that came out on top, ahead of Orica-GreenEdge, with third-placed OPQS among several teams to fall foul of bad weather during its run.
Day 2 of the Worlds belonged to Australia with green and gold on the top step of the podium in both the junior women’s ITT, courtesy of Macey Stewart, and the men’s U23, with new BMC signee Campbell Flakemore.
Lennard Kamna kicked off a great day for Germany on the third day of competition, taking out the junior men’s ITT, while compatriot Lisa Brennauer took out gold in the elite women’s ITT.
The following day Germany went into the elite men’s ITT with the big favourite Tony Martin, but Martin’s hopes of winning a fourth consecutive world title were foiled by a rampaging Bradley Wiggins, the Briton winning ahead of Martin and the Netherlands’ Tom Dumoulin.
Competition resumed on Friday after a rest day with the first of the road races. In the junior women’s road race Denmark’s Amalie Dideriksen won a second consecutive world title in a bunch sprint. Later in the day Sven Erik Bystrom (Norway) attacked on the final climb in the men’s U23 race to take gold.
On Saturday morning the junior men’s road race was won in a reduced bunch sprint by Germany’s Jonas Bokeloh. And in the afternoon, Pauline Ferrand-Prevot sprinted to victory from a reformed lead group after an elite four-rider group — Marianne Vos, Emma Johansson, Elisa Longo Borghini and Lizzie Armitstead — squandered their chance of victory.
And finally, in yesterday’s final race of the Worlds, Michal Kwiatkowski rewarded his hard-working Polish teammates by attacking on the last lap, bridging to the lead group, then riding away to a narrow solo victory in the elite men’s road race.
We hope you enjoy the following selection of photos from a great week of racing in Ponferrada.
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- Rabobank-Liv was one of the favourites in the women’s TTT, but a crash in the final kilometre saw the team DNF the race and Annemiek van Vleuten (pictured) and Anna van der Breggen hospitalised.
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- Specialized-Lululemon went into the TTT as the red-hot favourite and lived up to expectations, winning comfortably.
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- Specialized-Lululemon won by 1:17 over Orica-AIS who were a further 1:03 ahead of Astana-BePink in third.
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- In the men’s TTT Omega Pharma-QuickStep went in as the favourite, but suffered from a wet course late in proceedings.
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- BMC rode to TTT victory with an average speed of just under 54km/h. Tejay van Garderen later described the victory as the “highlight of his career”.
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- The first of the ITTs for the week saw Australia’s Macey Stewart win the junior women’s event.
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- Stewart’s teammates Anna-Leeza Hull and Alex Manly were third and fourth respectively, starting a great day for the Australians.
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- Wet conditions made the U23 men’s ITT tough going …
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- … but Campbell Flakemore was able to edge out pre-race favourite Ryan Mullen (Ireland) to take another gold medal for Australia. It’s the fourth time in six years Australia has won gold in the U23 men’s ITT at the world championships.
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- In the junior men’s ITT Germany’s Kamna Lennard took gold …
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- … ahead of USA’s Adrien Costa and Australia’s Michael Storer.
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- In the women’s ITT later that day, Ukranian Hanna Solovey rode into second place …
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- … while Lisa Brennauer took Germany’s second gold for the day …
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- … and her second gold in three days after being part of the Specialized-Lululemon TTT squad.
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- Brennauer’s teammate Evie Stevens (USA) was third on the day.
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- Bradley Wiggins took his first and last world ITT title, the Briton set to focus on the track again in the lead up to the Rio Olympics in 2016.
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- Tom Dumoulin was third …
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- … while Tony Martin was second, missing out on a fourth-straight world title.
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- The course used for the road race featured a short, steep climb near the start up past a castle, before a gentle 5km climb.
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- A technical descent between the long climb saw riders tackle a treacherous right turn on to a dam wall, before heading for the final, 1km climb near the end of the 18.2km circuit.
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- In the first of the road races, Amalie Dideriksen won her second consecutive junior women’s road race world title in a bunch sprint.
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- In the U23 men’s road race Sven Erik Bystrom attacked on the final climb of the final lap, holding off the fast-finishing peloton …
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- … which was led in by Australia’s Caleb Ewan who improved on his fourth place from last year, taking second in 2014.
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- In the junior men’s road race Jonas Bokeloh sprinted to victory from a small bunch, continuing Germany’s great run at the Worlds.
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- The elite women’s road race was marred by a nasty crash in the second lap which saw more than a dozen riders hospitalised.
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- The four-rider group gets away.
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- Among the chase group was Pauline Ferrand-Prevot who resisted a very fast finish from newly crowned ITT world champion Lisa Brennauer to take gold.
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- Ferrand-Prevot is the first French road race champion since Jeannie Longo in 1995. Lisa Brennauer had an amazing week, winning the TTT, the ITT and finishing second in the road race. The ever-consistent Emma Johansson was third to finish a year of just-abouts.
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- Heavy rain fell through much of the men’s road race, which saw a four-rider group get clear early in the race …
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- … and the Polish team spend much of the race on the front, controlling the pace for Michal Kwiatkowski.
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- Tony Martin was one of several riders to try for glory in the closing laps, getting away solo, but his move was shortlived.
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- Michal Kwiatkowski bridged across to a four-rider lead group just before the final climb, then attacked solo over the top …
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- … getting enough of a lead to hold on for victory.
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- Simon Gerrans was the fastest finisher in the chase group, finishing second in what has been an amazing year for the Victorian. Alejandro Valverde picked up yet another Worlds podium. He has two silver medals (2003 and 2005) and now four bronze medals (2006, 2002-2014), but is yet to find the top step. Michal Kwiatkowski, meanwhile, became the first Polish rider to win the world championships road race.