⁍ France’s Julian Alaphilippe claimed the world championship road race title on Sunday.
⁍ Alaphilippe timed his late attack perfectly to claim the world championship road race title.
⁍ The Frenchman eased to the line with Belgian Wout van Aert having to settle for second place.
– Julian Alaphilippe timed his late attack perfectly to claim the world championship road race title on Sunday, giving France its first rainbow jersey since 1997. Alaphilippe’s brutal acceleration on the last climb of the 258.2-mile race left his rivals in his wake and the Frenchman eased to the line with Belgian Wout van Aert having to settle for silver and Swiss Marc Hirschi taking bronze, reports Reuters. Three years after coming close in Bergen, Norway, when he was reined in with one kilometer to go, Alaphilippe benefited from top work by the French team, with Guillaume Martin covering their opponents’ attacks on the penultimate ascent. As Alaphilippe turned on the power 12km from the finish on the last of nine 28.8-km laps, only a handful of top riders— Jakob Fuglsang, Hirschi, Van Aert, Primoz Roglic, and Michal Kwiatkowski—were left to chase. It was the same tactics he used on the Poggio climb at Milan-Sanremo last month but this time, Van Aert, who prevailed that day, was not able to follow.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cycling-world-alaphilippe/cycling-alaphilippe-executes-perfect-plan-to-become-road-race-world-champion-idUSKBN26I0OX