Place Name: Sechseläutenplatz
Address: Sechseläutenplatz 1, 8001 Zürich, Switzerland
Details: September 29, 2024
After a rain soaked week, the clouds parted and sunshine came down for the 274KM Men's Elite Road Race. The race rolled out to the neutral start under heavy hearts as the cycling world was mourning the loss of Swiss rider Muriel Furrer who tragically passed away after a crash sustained in the Women's Junior Road Race earlier in the week.
The flag dropped in Winterthur and it became clear early on that larger nations were interested in getting up the road. A number of threatening groups went clear and came back but it wasn't until 240.5KM to go that Silvan Dillier of Switzerland, Piotr Pękala of Poland, and Luc Wirtgen of Luxembourg established the break. Rui Oliveira of Portugal and Tobias Foss of Norway were the first group to bridge with 236KM to go with Simon Geschke of Germany, Markus Pajur of Estonia, and Roberto González of Panama coming across shortly after. Pajur and González were dropped about as soon as they got on but the rest of the break forged on, getting a maximum of 5 minutes 30 seconds on the bunch. The break hit the finish line for the first time with 188KM to go with Czech Republic and Slovenia leading the peloton. Belgium started to make the race difficult with 168KM to go on the final uphill of the circuit and strung the bunch out single file over the top.
As the race looped back around to the Bergstrasse with 131KM to go, Pablo Castrillo of Spain attacked. He was nullified by Slovenia but it started a series of attacks. 10KM later, a group of 9 riders got clear and built a lead of 50 seconds and The Netherlands were not represented. Those 9 riders were Laurens De Plus of Belgium, Jan Tratnik of Slovenia, Magnus Cort of Denmark, Kevin Vermaerke of the USA, Pavel Sivakov of France, Mattia Cattaneo of Italy, Jay Vine of Australia, Johannes Staune-Mittet of Norway, and Florian Lipowitz of Germany. The chase group were only 15 seconds down on the break as they went through the finish line with 108KM to go, now up 3 minutes on the peloton. The Dutch did not blink, forcing Slovenia to take up the chase. They used all of their riders in the bunch and Tadej Pogačar attacked from the peloton with 101KM to go. Only Quinn Simmons of the USA and Andrea Bagioli of Italy went with him. Simmons was dropped then Bagioli but Pogačar had created a good gap by himself, now 1 minute behind the front of the race and 25 seconds ahead of the peloton. Tratnik dropped out of the front and joined with Pogačar at 96KM to go as Belgium got organized behind for a chase. Pogačar and Tratnik made it to the front group at 91KM to go with a lead of 1 minute.
The gap was down to 35 seconds with 80KM to go as they passed through 3 laps to go on the way back to the steep Bergstrasse. Sivakov was the only one to hang with Pogačar over the top. Belgium ran out of support riders with 75KM to go, forcing Remco Evenepoel to attack. He could not get clear and the bunch, now only around 30 riders, stalled afterwards. As they hit the flat road on the lake front with 57KM to go, Pogačar and Sivakov still had 40 seconds on a reduced group of around 15 riders whose only interest seemed to be attacking each other. Ben Healy of Ireland, Toms Skujiņš of Latvia and Oscar Onley of Great Britain formed a group ahead of the rest of the chase before they hit the line for 2 laps to go.
The lights went out for Sivakov on the Bergstrasse with 51KM to go, leaving Pogačar to go off solo. He went through the bell lap with 1 minute on Skujiņš and Healy and 90 seconds on the rest of the chase, now containing Onley, who all looked like they were on their last legs. Marc Hirschi of Switzerland attacked from the main chase, now down to 8 riders, on the final time up the Bergstrasse. Enric Mas of Spain bridged up to Hirschi with 19KM to go and the pair made their way up to Skujiņš and Healy with 16.5KM to go and just 38 seconds behind Pogačar.
Mathieu van der Poel of The Netherlands, Ben O'Connor of Australia and Evenepoel joined the first chase group to make a group of 7. The tension was building as Pogačar was rocking the hips and shoulders and seemed to be fighting the bike for the first time. Pogačar went over the top of the final climb with just under 10KM to go and managed to pull out a bit more time to 52 seconds which was enough for him to take the victory in the most emphatic style imaginable.
The race for second and third place was a true dog fight from the final 7 riders. O'Connor put in the final blow at 2KM to go to break the elastic and take Silver for Australia. Van der Poel won the sprint for Bronze in a valiant defense of the title. When Pogačar crossed the line, he became the World Champion and only the third male rider to win the triple crown of Giro d'Italia, Tour de France, and World RR in the same season behind Stephen Roche in 1987 and Eddy Merckx in 1974.
Tags: UCI World Championship Road Race, 2024, September, Winterthur, Zürich, Silvan Dillier, Piotr Pękala, Luc Wirtgen, Rui Oliveira, Tobias Foss, Simon Geschke, Markus Pajur, Roberto González, Pablo Castrillo, Laurens De Plus, Jan Tratnik, Magnus Cort, Kevin Vermaerke, Pavel Sivakov, Mattia Cattaneo, Jay Vine, Johannes Staune-Mittet, Florian Lipowitz, Tadej Pogačar, Quinn Simmons, Andrea Bagioli, Remco Evenepoel, Ben Healy, Toms Skujiņš, Oscar Onley, Marc Hirschi, Enric Mas, Mathieu van der Poel, Ben O'Connor