Mark Cavendish became the first British male rider to win the road race world title in 46 years when he edged the field in a mass sprint on Sunday.
At the end of a 260km ride from Copenhagen, Manxman Cavendish beat Australia’s Matthew Goss, with German Andre Greipel coming home third.
“There couldn’t be another result after the way the guys rode today. I’m so so proud,” Cavendish, the first Briton to win the title since the late Tom Simpson in 1965, told Eurosport. “Hopefully, we can make the double with this title and the Olympics next year.”
Photo: Reuters
Cavendish, who already has 20 Tour de France stage wins to his name, benefited all day from tremendous work by his British teammates, who controlled the field, working tirelessly in front of the peloton.
The 26-year-old “Manx Missile” was sheltered and nurtured by Bradley Wiggins, David Millar, Geraint Thomas, Jeremy Hunt, Ian Stannard, Steve Cummings and Chris Froome.
Tour de France green jersey winner Cavendish, widely rumored to be joining Team Sky next season, sneaked through in the slightly uphill final straight and then left no room for doubt.
He succeeds Norway’s Thor Hushovd, who lost any chance of retaining his title when he was held up by a massive crash with 85km to go.
“It’s incredible. It’s been a three-year project. When the course was announced, we saw it as the best opportunity ... to bring the rainbow jersey back to Great Britain,” Cavendish told a press conference.
To achieve this, Britain needed more than the three riders they had managed to qualify last year and the country’s recent results gave Britain the right to field an eight-man team in Denmark.
“It’s not just the eight guys here today, but all 13, 14 professional riders of Great Britain who worked all year to secure points,” Cavendish said.
The race got off to a nervous start, with France and Spain putting a rider each in the breakaway as about 250,000 cycling fans turned out along the course, according to the organizers.
Anthony Roux and Pablo Lastras, along with four others, built an eight-minute gap that Britain and Germany, hoping for a massive sprint, controlled from the front of the peloton.
With 108km to go, five riders, including France’s Yoann Offredo, Paris-Roubaix winner Johan van Summeren of Belgium and Luca Paolini of Italy, launched a counterattack, forcing the sprinters’ teams to work hard in front of the peloton.
The crash 85km out cost Hushovd and about 90 other riders about a minute.
With 70km left the early escapees were caught, but the breakaway still had a one-minute lead over the peloton and at that point the British riders stepped up the pace.
Roux tried his luck solo with 34km left, but the peloton caught the remains of the breakaway with 23km to go and soon picked off Roux, but they could not rest long as Frenchman Thomas Voeckler, Belgian Klaas Lodewyck and local favorite Nicki Sorensen sped away.
The peloton regrouped 7km from the line, as Britain and Australia prepared for the most eagerly awaited sprint of the season.
Swiss powerhouse Fabian Cancellara gave it a shot, but he could only manage fourth. Goss got to Cavendish’s wheel, but had to settle for second.
“My teammates looked after me all day, they rode like a seasoned professional team,” Goss told reporters. “I don’t like being the bridesmaid, I would much rather be wearing that jersey today.”
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Taiwanese badminton superstar Lee Yang broke down in tears after publicly retiring from the sport on Sunday. The two-time Olympic gold medalist held a retirement ceremony at the Taipei Arena after the final matches of the Taipei Open. Accompanied by friends, family and former badminton partners, Lee burst into tears while watching a video celebrating key moments in his professional sporting career that also featured messages from international players such as Malaysia’s Teo Ee Yi, Hong Kong’s Tang Chun-man, and Indonesia’s Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan. “I hope that in the future when the world thinks about me, they will
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures
RSS