World Championships: Mathieu van der Poel storms to historic road race victory despite late crash

Mathieu van der Poel produced a masterclass in the rain in Glasgow as he stormed to victory in the men's road race at the World Championships.

It was a staggering spectacle as the Dutchman powered to another famous triumph in his remarkable career as he refused to let any rivals - or indeed the tricky weather - slow him down in Scotland.

Van der Poel, who had made it into an elite group of strongmen, including Mads Pedersen (Denmark), Tadej Pogacar (Slovenia) and Wout van Aert (Belgium), stormed away from his rivals with 23km to go, from the bottom of Cathedral Street. He first swept up Italy's Alberto Bettiol, who had spent almost an hour out front on his own, before powering himself into a lead of almost 30 seconds within five kilometres.

The 28-year-old was so dominant that, even after his fall with 16km remaining, he was able to cruise home without a real challenge in the final stages as the Glasgow fans roared him towards the finish line.

What was always likely to be a long day was made even longer, when the organisers were forced to suspend racing for almost an hour, as four protesters from the group, This is Rigged, cemented themselves to the course after 80km had been completed.

Before that point, the race had unfolded in a relatively conventional fashion, rolling out of Edinburgh, and heading west towards the Queensferry Crossing of the Firth of Forth. First Austria's Patrick Gamper and Rory Townsend (Ireland) made it clear, and began cooperating. They were joined by seven more for a strong lead group comprising Owain Doull (Great Britain), Matthew Dinham (Australia), Harold Tejada (Colombia), Kevin Vermaerke (USA), Ryan Christensen (New Zealand), Krists Neilands (Latvia), Petr Kelemen (Czech Republic), Gamper and Townsend.

Despite the simplicity with which the break seemed to form, the first hour of racing covered a full 50km of the course, at which point predictions of an early finish did not seem unjustified.

Two more small groups of riders, among them 40 year-old Rien Schuurhuis representing the Vatican City, and George Bennett (New Zealand) spent a long time trying to bridge across but were unsuccessful, finding themselves in no-man's land for most of an hour. When the race was stopped Bennett and Schuurhuis were obliged to resume from the bunch.

Once the protesters had been removed, and the racing resumed, it never really relented. The historically established nations took responsibility for the chase, dragging the peloton into the Glasgow limits. Once on the technical, tough city centre circuit Denmark took over and drilled the competition into submission, with almost 150km still left to ride.

The traditionally attritional phase of the race began, as Michael Morkov (Denmark) set an excruciating pace on behalf of team leader Pedersen, stringing out the bunch, and forcing anyone who was not in the wheels to sprint to catch up out of every corner. The breakaway had an easier time of things, with their smaller number and more easily arranged rotation of the workload. The breakers' lead was being brought down fast, but halfway through the race the riders in it were doing a solid job of hanging on to their advantage.

A attack from Julian Alaphilippe (France) with 134km remaining was brief but bright, as the two-time World Champion would step off his bike two laps later. He would be in good company, as more riders would abandon than not, with just 50 riders going the distance.

The true contenders emerged as the race entered the final 100km. Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) was the rider to reach out first, before Mathieu van der Poel made his first move, and Tadej Pogacar tried his luck. With 75km still to race, the bunch had been whittled down to 24 riders, before another Van der Poel attack, which only Van Aert, Pederson, Alberto Bettiol and Tadej Pogacar could follow, seemed to form a final elite selection. None of the group committed to the move, however, and they were rejoined by the remnants of the bunch, including Remco Evenepoel, less than a lap later.

The Italian, who appeared to be the most hungry, and the least marked, began his manoeuvres as the weather started to turn, escaping twice from his rivals. The second move achieved a large enough gap to ask questions of the best of those behind, as he negotiated damp, difficult corners for more than 30km solo.

One was never going to beat four, however, especially when the four consisted of Pogacar, Pedersen, Van der Poel and Van Aert. The quartet of stars didn't have to cooperate too much to remain in contact with Bettiol, and then bring him back in good time. They all seemed strong, the only question to answer was which was the strongest.

The answer came at the bottom of Cathedral Street as, with Bettiol serving as a carrot, Van der Poel put in an almighty acceleration that no-one could do anything about. He swept up Bettiol before the end of the road, and put 17 seconds into the others within three kilometres.

Nothing the trio could do could make a difference. Even between them they lacked the legs to match the Dutch destroyer. Even the greatest of cohesive performances would not bring him back.

Although Van der Poel's slip seemed to superficially alter the calculation somewhat - and certainly it should have been more than superficial - he was yet able to gain time, even as he lost one of the Boa straps which kept his shoe tight. Inside the final 10km and he was close to a kilometre ahead, and only needed to stay upright for a famous victory, and his first set of road rainbow stripes.

"It was one of the biggest goals I had left," said Van der Poel afterwards, "and to win it today was amazing. It almost completes my career. I cannot yet imagine riding in rainbows for a year."

Speaking to how he achieved the result, Van der Poel said that "when I saw no-one was following, it gave me wings. I was just flying around the course until the crash. For a moment I believed it was over. It was not that I was taking risks, it was just super slippery. If this had cost me the world title, I would have not slept for a couple of days."

Wout van Aert was able to steal enough of a march on Pedersen and Pogacar at the flamme rouge, to come home clear in second place. Pogacar beat the predictors, by outsprinting Pedersen for 3rd place on the podium.

Defending champion Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) eventually finished in 25th place, ten minutes down on the winner.

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