Cyclingresults.net – Australia’s premier domestic cycling news & results website

BANG BANG! BETTINI SHOOTS HIS WAY TO VICTORY!

Full results, report, interviews & photos.

Tour de France runner up Cadel Evans has finished fifth in the elite men’s road race at the 2007 UCI Road World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany.

The world title was won by defending champion Italy’s Paolo Bettini who crossed the line at the end of the 267.4 kilometre event with a winning time of 6h44m43s.

Russian Alexandr Kolobnev was second with Germany’s Stefan Schumacher clinching the bronze medal.

The final lap was marked by repeated attacks but it was the persistence of the medallists, Evans and Luxembourg’s Frank Schleck that saw them gap the field and fight it out for the medals.

“We went into the race with two leaders me and Alby (Allan Davis)  and as the race turned out I was the leader there when that group went away,” explained Evans who realised that with Bettini, a noted sprinter, in the group, he had to act before the finish line was in sight. “I had to go earlier and I gave everything with one kilometre to go but they closed me in and that was really my chance for a medal.

“That (effort) stuffed me for the finish and then I was too tired to do a good sprint.”

But Evans believes despite missing the podium the Australian performance was one of the best he’s been involved in.

“Overall it’s the best I’ve ever seen our team ride at the worlds,”  said Evans. “I didn’t race Zolder (2002) where Robbie (McEwen) was second but since then it’s the best I’ve seen us ride.

“There was a group away at the start which was risky but we sat calm and saved it for when it mattered and as a team we can be really proud of what we did,” said Evans. “I was especially impressed with the younger riders on the team who rode far beyond what was expected of them.

“Me at 30 (years of age) I’m the oldest here so the future looks really promising for Australia,” said Evans. “I think the best is yet to come.”

Cycling Australia Professional Rider Liaison, Neil Stephens, agrees  Australia’s young talent has a big future.

“The thing that really helped us today was some of our younger riders who were going to do the early work really excelled which meant we had a lot stronger team later in the race,” said Stephens. “We didn’t have to pull out the big guns till late in the race which helped us overall and meant we were up there with a chance of a medal.

“You can’t be disappointed because we were there right to the finishing line and everybody gave their best.”

Evans, who came to the World Championships a week after finishing fourth overall in the Tour of Spain, will now concentrate on the final ProTour race of the season, the Tour of Lombardy, which is being raced on October 20th. He is currently only 15 points off the ProTour Series lead and a finish of sixth or better in Lombardy would see him claim the Series for 2007.

“I think I’ve done six or seven ProTour races for GC (overall placing) this year and my worst was tenth so I’m pretty tired now,” said Evans. “I haven’t had time to comprehend it yet but for me to be there today playing for the win was good.

“Lombardy is one of the best one day races of the year for me, it’s  my wife’s (Chiara) home race and as I’m second in the ProTour rankings I’m obligated to go there,” he laughed. “I’ll have a bit of a rest and do what I can. I’m running on empty to be honest but I’ll see what I can do.”

Overall in Stuttgart Italy topped the medal table with two gold and a bronze ahead of the Netherlands one gold, one silver and one bronze. Australia finished equal seventh on the table after the silver medal ride of Wesley Sulzberger in the Saturday’s U23 men’s road race. 13 nations claimed medals in the six events contested during the five days of the Championships.

More images available at www.cyclingnews.com

Results

1 Paolo Bettini (Italy) 6.44.43 (39.642 km/h)
2 Alexandr Kolobnev (Russian Federation)
3 Stefan Schumacher (Germany)
4 Frank Schleck (Luxembourg)
5 Cadel Evans (Australia)
6 Davide Rebellin (Italy) 0.06
7 Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spain) 0.08
8 Philippe Gilbert (Belgium)
9 Fabian Wegmann (Germany)
10 Martin Elmiger (Switzerland)
11 Thomas Dekker (Netherlands)
12 Michael Boogerd (Netherlands) 0.14
13 Björn Leukemans (Belgium) 0.15
14 Oscar Freire Gomez (Spain) 0.49
15 Aleksandr Kuschynski (Belarus)
16 Alexandre Usov (Belarus)
17 Beat Zberg (Switzerland)
18 Erik Zabel (Germany)
19 Thor Hushovd (Norway)
20 Radoslav Rogina (Croatia)
21 Murilo Antonio Fischer (Brazil)
22 Matej Mugerli (Slovenia)
23 George Hincapie (United States Of America)
24 Marcus Ljungqvist (Sweden)
25 Chris Sörensen (Denmark)
26 Jurgen Van Goolen (Belgium)
27 Leonardo Duque (Colombia)
28 Rene Mandri (Estonia)
29 Gustav Larsson (Sweden)
30 Pierrick Fedrigo (France)
31 Thomas Lövkvist (Sweden)
32 Alexander Efimkin (Russian Federation)
33 Tomasz Marczynski (Poland)
34 Jan Valach (Slovakia)
35 Sebastian Langeveld (Netherlands)
36 Christian Vandevelde (United States Of America)
37 Nuno Ribeiro (Portugal)
38 Christian Pfannberger (Austria)
39 Unai Etxebarria Arana (Venezuela)
40 David George (South Africa)
41 Ludovic Turpin (France)
42 Kurt-Asle Arvesen (Norway)
43 Vladimir Efimkin (Russian Federation)
44 Sergey Lagutin (Uzbekistan)
45 Mario Aerts (Belgium)
46 Vladimir Karpets (Russian Federation)
47 Denis Menchov (Russian Federation)
48 Przemyslaw Niemiec (Poland)
49 Manuel Beltran Martinez (Spain)
50 Damiano Cunego (Italy) 0.57
51 Filippo Pozzato (Italy)
52 Alessandro Ballan (Italy)
53 Allan Davis (Australia) 1.05
54 David Millar (Great Britain)
55 Matthew Lloyd (Australia) 1.10
56 Karsten Kroon (Netherlands) 1.24
57 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spain) 2.47
58 Matija Kvasina (Croatia) 3.10
59 Kristjan Fajt (Slovenia) 3.38
60 Gorazd Stangelj (Slovenia) 3.41
61 Kanstantsin Siutsou (Belarus) 5.17
62 Alessandro Bertolini (Italy) 6.01
63 Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium) 6.34
64 Maxime Monfort (Belgium) 6.52
65 Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver (Spain) 7.52
66 Simon Gerrans (Australia) 8.09
67 Sylvain Chavanel (France)
68 Thomas Voeckler (France) 15.51
69 Erki Pütsep (Estonia)
70 Laszlo Bodrogi (Hungary) 17.10
71 Vladimir Tuychiev (Uzbekistan) 21.57
72 Hossein Askari (Islamic Republic Of Iran)
DNF Carlos Sastre Candil (Spain)
DNF Stéphane Goubert (France)
DNF Robert Gesink (Netherlands)
DNF Carlos Barredo Llamazales (Spain)
DNF Serguei Yakovlev (Kazakhstan)
DNF Hernani Broco (Portugal)
DNF Marcus Burghardt (Germany)
DNF Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland)
DNF Andy Schleck (Luxembourg)
DNF Philip Deignan (Ireland)
DNF Jens Voigt (Germany)
DNF Gerald Ciolek (Germany)
DNF Amaël Moinard (France)
DNF Volodymyr Zagorodny (Ukraine)
DNF Laurens Ten Dam (Netherlands)
DNF Bobby Julich (United States Of America)
DNF Jason Mccartney (United States Of America)
DNF Christian Knees (Germany)
DNF Johan Van Summeren (Belgium)
DNF Dominique Rollin (Canada)
DNF Andriy Grivko (Ukraine)
DNF Evgeny Petrov (Russian Federation)
DNF Assan Bazayev (Kazakhstan)
DNF James Lewis Perry (South Africa)
DNF Matti Breschel (Denmark)
DNF Juan Antonio Flecha Giannoni (Spain)
DNF Xavier Florencio Cabre (Spain)
DNF Tomislav Danculovic (Croatia)
DNF Jure Golcer (Slovenia)
DNF Romain Feillu (France)
DNF Sandy Casar (France)
DNF Hrvoje Miholjevic (Croatia)
DNF Martin Mares (Czech Republic)
DNF Andrea Tonti (Italy)
DNF Matteo Tosatto (Italy)
DNF William Walker (Australia)
DNF Piotr Zielinski (Poland)
DNF Fuyu Li (People’s Republic Of China)
DNF Petr Bencik (Czech Republic)
DNF Maros Kovac (Slovakia)
DNF Glen Alan Chadwick (New Zealand)
DNF Matej Jurco (Slovakia)
DNF Yukiya Arashiro (Japan)
DNF Takashi Miyazawa (Japan)
DNF Vladislav Borisov (Russian Federation)
DNF Dmitriy Fofonov (Kazakhstan)
DNF Bruno Neves (Portugal)
DNF Marcin Sapa (Poland)
DNF Roman Kreuziger (Czech Republic)
DNF Kim Kirchen (Luxembourg)
DNF Robert Kiserlovski (Croatia)
DNF Michael Rogers (Australia)
DNF Luis Felipe Laverde Jimenez (Colombia)
DNF Krzysztof Szczawinski (Poland)
DNF Romas Sinicinas (Lithuania)
DNF Matej Stare (Slovenia)
DNF Hugo Sabido (Portugal)
DNF Martin Garrido Mayorga (Argentina)
DNF Frederik Willems (Belgium)
DNF Danail Petrov (Bulgaria)
DNF Vladimir Gusev (Russian Federation)
DNF Roger Hammond (Great Britain)
DNF John Devine (United States Of America)
DNF Tyler Farrar (United States Of America)
DNF Ronny Scholz (Germany)
DNF David Kopp (Germany)
DNF Volodymyr Bileka (Ukraine)
DNF Dmytro Grabovskyy (Ukraine)
DNF Scott Davis (Australia)
DNF Jacek Morajko (Poland)
DNF Hayden Roulston (New Zealand)
DNF Maarten Den Bakker (Netherlands)
DNF Richard Ochoa Quintero (Venezuela)
DNF Jose Rodolfo Serpa Perez (Colombia)
DNF Martin Riska (Slovakia)
DNF Svein Tuft (Canada)
DNF Stéphane Auge (France)
DNF Bram Tankink (Netherlands)
DNF Matias Medici (Argentina)
DNF Nebojsa Jovanovic (Serbia)
DNF Stijn Devolder (Belgium)
DNF Juan Pablo Dotti (Argentina)
DNF Muradjan Khalmuratov (Uzbekistan)
DNF Darren Lill (South Africa)
DNF Bernhard Kohl (Austria)
DNF Mauricio Alberto Ardila Cano (Colombia)
DNF Mathew Hayman (Australia)
DNF Luis Ministro Moyano (Argentina)
DNF Ariel Maximiliano Richeze (Argentina)
DNF Borut Bozic (Slovenia)
DNF Mark Cavendish (Great Britain)
DNF Daryl Impey (South Africa)
DNF Fumiyuki Beppu (Japan)
DNF Roman Bronis (Slovakia)
DNF Andris José Hernandez (Venezuela)
DNF Koos Moerenhout (Netherlands)
DNF Trent Lowe (Australia)
DNF Dainius Kairelis (Lithuania)
DNF Mehdi Sohrabi (Islamic Republic Of Iran)
DNF Jeremy Vennell (New Zealand)
DNF Cameron Evans (Canada)
DNF Christian Poos (Luxembourg)
DNF Kristijan Durasek (Croatia)
DNF Lars Ytting Bak (Denmark)
DNF Ruslan Podgornyy (Ukraine)
DNF Sergey Kolesnikov (Russian Federation)
DNF Juan José Haedo (Argentina)
DNF Gerrit Glomser (Austria)
DNF Marlon Alirio Perez Arango (Colombia)
DNF Zolt Der (Serbia)
DNF Mads Kaggestad (Norway)
DNF Laurent Didier (Luxembourg)
DNF Seyed Mostafa Seyed Rezaei Khormizi (Islamic Republic Of Iran)
DNF Alex Cano Ardila (Colombia)
DNF David Zabriskie (United States Of America)
DNF Renato Seabra (Brazil)
DNF Ricardo Martins (Portugal)
DNF Aleksejs Saramotins (Latvia)
DNF Medhi Fahridi Kovij (Islamic Republic Of Iran)
DNF Jan Sipeky (Slovakia)
DNF Dragan Spasic (Serbia)
DNF Luciano André Pagliarini Mendonca (Brazil)
DNF Robert Hunter (South Africa)
DNF Mikhaylo Khalilov (Ukraine)
DSQ Marzio Bruseghin (Italy)
DNS José Rodrigues (Portugal)