Nat Bromhead
Monday Sept 28
Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe has won the Elite Men road race of the 2020 UCI Road World Championships in Imola.
The Deceuninck–Quick-Step rider attacked on the last Cima Gallisterna climb and pushed full gas until the finish line in the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari. Wout van Aert (Belgium) dominated the sprint for the silver medal – repeating his TT result two days earlier – in front of Marc Hirschi.
The last rainbow jersey for France in the men’s road race came in 1997 with Laurent Brochard’s victory in San Sebastián.
“For this moment it’s really hard to say something,” said Alaphilippe. “I want to say ‘thank-you’ to all my teammates who really believed in me today. Everybody did a great job. It was a dream of my career. Sometimes, I was so close, and I was never on the podium. I came here with a lot of ambition and it’s just a dream day for me.”
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Sunday Sept 27
Anna van der Breggen dominated the Elite Women road race of the 2020 UCI Road World Championships.
The star rider took her third gold medal at the Worlds in Italy, after claiming victory in the 2018 road race in Innsbruck and in the individual time-trial this Thursday in Imola.
She’s only the second rider to win both events the same year, 25 years after France’s Jeannie Longo’s double triumph.
Annemiek van Vleuten outsprinted Elisa Longo Borghini to take the silver medal and Marianne Vos finished 4th to complete the Dutch domination.
Saturday Sept 26
Rohan Dennis has missed out on a third consecutive World Championship Time Trial jersey, the powerful Aussie posting the 5th fastest time.
24yo Italian Filippo Ganna – a teammate of Dennis at Ineos – is World TT Champion after posting the blistering time of 35m 54.1seconds over the 31.7km course.
Belgian Wout van Aert took the silver medal and the Swiss Stefan Küng finished third, with Geraint Thomas 4th and Rohan Dennis 5th overall some 4 minutes off the winning time.
The Imola World Championships continue tonight with the Elite Women’s Road Race, with the Men’s Road Race on Sunday night.
Friday Sept 25
Dutch rider Anna van der Breggen has won the opening event of the 2020 UCI Road World Championships, the Women’s Elite individual time trial.
Switzerland’s Marlen Reusser finished second and Dutch rider Ellen van Dijk third. Defending champion Chloé Dygert crashed out of the event after setting the best intermediate time.
Grace Brown was best placed Australian rider finishing 5th overall on the 31.7km course in just over 41 minutes.
With a significantly reduced program, the 2020 World’s are being held in Imola, Italy over four days. The Men’s TT is scheduled for Friday with the Women’s Road Race on Saturday and Men’s Road Race on Sunday.
