Men's World Championship Road Race 2023 live - Evenepoel and Van Aert set for battle with Van der Poel and Pogacar

TOP TEN IN GLASGOW

1. Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) 6'07'27"
2. Wout van Aert (Belgium) +1'37"
3. Tadej Pogacar (Slovenia) +1'45"
4. Mads Pedersen (Denmark) "
5. Stefan Kung (Switzerland) +3'48"
6. Jasper Stuyven (Belgium) "
7. Matthew Dinham (Australia) "
8. Toms Skujins (Latvia) "
9. Tiesj Benoot (Belgium) "
10. Alberto Bettiol +4'03"

Battle-scarred but brilliant, and by two whole minutes. Today has become a legend. What an extraordinary day.

Wout van Aert must play bridesmaid today, but steals enough of a march to take 2nd place. Tadej Pogacar surprises us all by outsprinting Mads Pedersen for the remaining podium place and the bronze medal.

One more ascent of Montrose Street sees Van der Poel out of the saddle for the last time. He knows.

They've been witness to something very special today. So has the coach in the team car. Van der Poel is set to become the first Dutch male world road champion since Joop Zoetemelk in 1985.

Bar disaster, it's hard to imagine what could prevent it now. MVDP is closer to a minute ahead now. The others would have to not only be a lot stronger than they seem, but be prepared to cooperate to the point of risking losing the race. They're not going to.

Van der Poel takes the bell, and 30 seconds later so do the three riders behind. Brian and Adam seem certain that they cannot bring the Dutchman back.

Oh my goodness! He comes in hot to a slippery right hand corner, and completely loses it before the apex. He's back up and riding, somehow having preserved most of his lead, but not one of the Boa dials of his shoe. How that will affect him, in various ways, we can only wait and see.

And they've got seventeen seconds to close already. It's a big ask.

Right at the bottom of Cathedral Street he launches up and sweeps right past Bettiol, who is already out the back. That was brutal. Can Pedersen, Van Aert and Pogacar respond?

More than holding on, he's gliding around the corners, taking them as well as he might if the roads were bone dry. Certainly compared to the four behind, who have to watch out for each other.

And three riders, Neilsen Powless (USA), Tom Skujins (Latvia), and Mauro Schmid (Switzerland) hit out from group three. It's a bit of a forlorn chase, but they might as well.

Two laps left.

It's as suspected, and I think Remco has to accept that he's worn the rainbow jersey for the last time, at least for a while.

It's basically the same selection as before, but with everyone having a lot less in the tank. If Bettiol has any information at all, he's got to be better off easing off, even if just slightly, and preserving something for the next phase.

That looked more than horrible. I was just thinking about how well he'd ridden to still be up amongst the biggest classics riders in the world, only for his dreams to come crashing down on a wet right hand corner. That's of no concern for Wout van Aert who is taking things into his own hands, and driving on with Tadej Pogacar and Mads Pedersen right behind him, Mathieu van der Poel closing the gap.

Bettiol is a long way from winning this one, but he couldn't ask to be in a better position at this point in proceedings.

This is really going to alter the equation - especially on the cobbled and flagstoned descents. Bettiol has a more than reasonable lead of 20km, but he also has four very strong Belgian's hungry to bring him back.

And again the Italian almost comes acropper, but gets a reasonable gap this time as the others are watching each other, and are on the lookout for snacks in the feed zone. The heavens have opened and the sun come out at the very same moment. We all know what that means.

And again it's Pogacar who is obliged to chase it down. One way or another it's looking good for the Belgians. The group is back down to 18 riders.

And almost loses it. It was such a powerful acceleration, on a 90 degree right hand turn, that his bidon came out of its cage and was clipped by his rear wheel just before the barriers. And the punches continue to rain down. Every one of these riders is making it hard for every other.

He's in this main group, but it's starting to look like he hasn't been distanced (more than once) for no reason. I'm going to say he doesn't have the legs for today, and it will have to be a different Belgian, if any at all.