Monday 29 September 2014 10:44, UK
Poland’s Michal Kwiatkowski won the world road race title with a brilliantly timed solo attack as Britain’s Ben Swift finished 12th.
While all of the other race favourites waited until the last of the day’s 28 climbs to make their moves, Kwiatkowski instead attacked on the rain-soaked descent off the penultimate climb, around 7km out, and it proved to be a masterful decision.
His lead was never more than ten seconds, but he managed to hold off a six-man chase group over the final climb and then 4.5km of downhill and flat to the finish in Ponferrada to claim the rainbow jersey aged just 24.
Australia’s Simon Gerrans won a sprint for the silver medal, while Spain’s Alejandro Valverde had to settle for bronze for the third year in a row.
Swift couldn’t follow the counter-attacks on the final climb and crossed the line in the second chase group, seven seconds down on Kwiatkowski, with Peter Kennaugh the only other Briton to complete the race.
Kwiatkowski, who is Poland's first world road race champion and the youngest winner since 1999, said: “I was feeling great in the last lap, thanks to the work of my team-mates.
"I risked it all when I saw that most of the top riders were still there. I had watched the under-23 race and I saw that a lone rider could win."
Swift added: "Kwiatkowski is such a class act. He has had his team on the front all day. He definitely deserved that win. Chapeau to him. I gave it my best shot, it was just that last steep climb really hurt."
The 254.8km race took place over 14 laps of an 18.2km circuit in Ponferrada and although it contained more than 4,200m vertical metres of climbing, the flat finish meant sprinters, all-rounders and even climbers were all in with an equal chance of victory.
Kwiatkowski made his intentions known early by placing his eight Polish team-mates on the front of the peloton to lead the chase of a four-man breakaway that had built up a lead of 15 minutes.
After those escapees and then a second breakaway containing Kennaugh had both been caught 60km and 30km out respectively, a third, four-man breakaway formed and opened up a lead of 45 seconds heading on to the last lap.
In the main bunch, the race favourites tackled the penultimate climb together, with Swift particularly well placed, and it appeared that the decisive action would be reserved for the final ascent.
However, Kwiatkowski attacked on the downhill section between the climbs and after quickly catching the breakaway, he rested briefly before kicking again 5.8km out to move into a lone lead.
A spate of counter-attacks on the final climb saw a six-man chase group consisting of Valverde, Gerrans, Denmark’s Matti Breschel, France’s Tony Gallopin and Belgian pair Philippe Gilbert and Greg van Avermaet form, but they left it too late and were unable to catch the brilliant Kwiatkowski.
Sir Dave Brailsford, Great Britain's acting head coach, said of Swift's performance: “I thought Ben rode the perfect race. He had to gamble and he had to be patient, and it was a question for him of whether it was going to come back together at the end. Hats off to Kwiatkowski. The way he got his team to ride at the start, took the race on, and the way he went away at the end - he is a class act and a deserving winner.”
Men’s world road race result
1 Michal Kwiatkowski (Poland), 6:29:07
2 Simon Gerrans (Australia), +1
3 Alejandro Valverde (Spain), same time
4 Matti Breschel (Denmark), st
5 Greg van Avermaet (Belgium), st
6 Tony Gallopin (France), st
7 Philippe Gilbert (Belgium), +4
8 Alexander Kristoff (Norway), +7
9 John Degenkolb (Germany), st
10 Nacer Bouhanni (France), st
Selected others
11 Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland), st
12 Ben Swift (Great Britain), st
