BERGEN, Norway—Peter Sagan ended a year of mixed fortunes on a high note by becoming the first man to win three straight world road race titles.
The colorful rider from Slovakia defended his crown on Sunday after holding off Norwegian Alexander Kristoff in a sprint finish at the road world championships in Norway.
Sagan was unnoticed during most of the 267.5-kilometer race. He perfectly timed his final effort, powering to the front in the final straight. Australia’s Michael Matthews was third.
Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe tried to go for a solo win in the final 10 kilometers after a sudden acceleration on the final climb of Salmon Hill. He was joined by Gianni Moscon of Italy but the pair was ultimately reined in.
Sagan said he thought until the final kilometers that the breakaway riders would not be caught by the bunch.
“In the end, it came to a sprint and it was unbelievable,” Sagan said. “Kristoff is racing at home, and I’m sorry for that, but I’m happy to win again.”
Sagan became the fifth rider in history to win three road world titles, joining Alfredo Binda, Rik Van Steenbergen, Eddy Merckx and Oscar Freire. But it’s unlikely that he will compete for a fourth consecutive title next year in Austria as the course in Innsbruck will be suited to climbers.
“I want to dedicate this to Michele Scarponi,” said Sagan, referring to the former Giro d’Italia winner who died in a training accident earlier this year. “Because he would have had a birthday tomorrow. It was a very sad story this year.”
Sagan, who was excluded from the Tour de France in July for elbowing British rival Mark Cavendish during a sprint, also dedicated his win to his wife. The crash forced Cavendish to abandon the race with a broken shoulder.
“We are expecting a baby,” Sagan said. “It’s a very nice end of the season.”
It has been a perfect world championships for Italy’s Elena Pirrone, who followed up her gold medal in the junior women’s time trial with a gold in the road race earlier last week.
Making the most of a well-calculated long distance attack, Pirrone broke away on the second last descent of the decisive Salmon Hill climb. She finally crossed the line in Festplassen 12 seconds ahead of Emma Norsgaard Jorgensen of Denmark, the fastest in a group of 11 chasers.
Eliza Paternoster made it two medals out of three for Italy by claiming the bronze, two places better than her fifth spot in the same road-race event in last year’s race in Qatar.
Pirrone’s advantage on the last lap and a half sometimes shrank to as low as 12 seconds, but with more than triple that total—40 seconds—as she approached Salmon Hill for a last time, it was clear that any chasing group would have collaborate well to chase her down.
But that pooling of mutual interests, particularly with two Italian teammates marking any counterattacks in the main forward group, was severely lacking.
Pirrone’s fine solo win means the title and the coveted rainbow jersey that goes with it will stay in Italy for the second year running, following Elisa Balsamo’s gold medal in Qatar last October.
Pirrone has also repeated the same double Junior Women’s gold in road race and time trial events taken by Chloe Dygert for the USA back in the 2015 Road World Championships. AP and UCI News
Image credits: AP