The 16-year-old Danish cyclist Albert Philipsen won the UCI World Championships Junior Men’s Road Race in Glasgow on Saturday following a dazzling late attack that saw him surge clear of a congested leading pack.
The start of the 127km race was slightly delayed by the weather, but the early pace was strong when riders eventually set off from the Scottish city’s George Square, with Denmark, Italy and Netherlands breaking away.
Course conditions were tricky after an earlier shower and with rain still in the air, but Belgium’s Gerben Thijssen was able to make a good first move, opening up a 12-second advantage only for misfortune to strike when he suffered a mechanical issue and dropped back into the peloton.
With 100km to go, Felix Orn-Kristoff of Norway was the next rider to go solo, putting 25 seconds between himself and the chasing pack.
Riders from Slovenia, Netherlands and Australia attempted to bridge the gap but couldn’t make any significant inroads as the leader’s team-mates marked off the attack.
With little more than 90km to go, Philipsen made his first major move on one of the course’s uphill sections, reducing his arrears to Orn-Kristoff before arriving on the Norwegian’s wheel.
The leading duo were then joined by Norway’s Jorgen Nordhagen, the race favourite, and Germany’s Paul Fietzke, with the quartet completing the third lap 18 seconds clear of a three-man chase group and 24 seconds ahead of the peloton.
The chase group – Matthew Brennan (Great Britain), Juan David Sierra (Italy) and Theodor Storm (Denmark) – managed to run down the leaders with around 70km to go and create a new seven-man lead group that quickly pressed home its advantage to more than a minute.
With 50km to go, the peloton began to make inroads into the deficit, bringing the gap back under 30 seconds. Finland’s Kasper Borremans then dropped the peloton to take on Glasgow’s punishing hills on his own and briefly got within 15 seconds before standing up and slipping back into the chasing pack.
In the end, it would become a straight shoot-out between the seven riders out front, and it was Fietzke who made the first attack with 30km left, although he wasn’t able to create a gap.
However, the move appeared to drop Storm, but the Dane was able to recover and rejoin the lead group.
At the end of the penultimate lap and with 15km remaining, Philipsen became the solo leader, finally splitting up the leading septet and putting some distance between himself and his five nearest challengers after a brilliant uphill attack.
In the final three kilometres, the Dane was stretching his lead. Behind him, the battle for the other medals continued to rage.
At least one of Storm, Orn-Kristoff or Fietzke would miss out but Sierra too was bearing down on them.
Philipsen crossed the line to become the third Dane in seven years to claim gold in the event – with his margin of victory being 1:19.
Orn-Kristoff was the first to break into a sprint, but Fietzke pipped him at the line to take silver for Germany and leave the Norwegian in third.
Sierra and Storm crossed the line seconds later to complete a breathtaking finish.
Sebastian Grindley finished best of the home riders when he crossed in eighth place.
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