Julian Alaphilippe becomes 2020 World Champion in Imola
Sep 27 2020 10:40 pm CET
Photo of Julian Alaphilippe © Deceuninck-Quick-Step Cycling Team / Getty Images
Julian Alaphilippe (France) has taken the title of the road race at the World Championships. The rider launched an attack with 11 kilometres to go and crossed the finish line on his own in Imola, Italy.
The road race of the world championships was 258.2 kilometres long with a start and finish in Imola. Before the race it was announced that Kazakh rider Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) was not going to be at the start line any more as he got a positive result in a Covid-19 test.
The first breakaway of the day included riders like Yukiya Arashiro (Japan), Jonas Koch (Germany) and Torstein Traeen (Norway) but they were reeled back in by the pack during the penultimate lap of the circuit. With 40 kilometres to go, the winner of the 2020 Tour de France Tadej Pogacar attacked during one of the climbs and managed to create a considerable gap but was caught by a pack led by Belgium, Spain, France and Italy during the last lap.
During the penultimate ascent, riders like Tom Dumoulin (The Netherlands), Richard Carapaz (Ecuador) and Vincenzo Nibali (Italy) tried their luck but couldn't break free. All these movements slimmed the peloton and the first slopes of the last climb left riding in front like Greg Van Avermaet, Marc Hirschi, Julian Alaphilippe, Jakob Fuglsang, Wout van Aert, Primoz Roglic and Michal Kwiatkowski.
At the end of the last climb, Alaphilippe changed the pace and managed to create a gap with the rest. Behind him, Kwiatkowski, Fuglsang, Hirschi, Van Aert and Roglic created the chasing group while the Frenchman took a gap of more than 15 seconds.
Alaphilippe crossed the finish line on his own, becoming the first Frenchman to win the title in 23 years. Van Aert and Hirschi completed the final podium of the competition.
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