Cycling/ World Road Race Championship: Reigning Olympic champion, current Italian champion and now world champion; Italian rider Paolo Bettini underlined his status as perhaps the best one-day rider in cycling when he took the rainbow jersey in Salzburg, Austria, yesterday.
The 32-year-old was one of the most aggressive riders in the closing stages of the 265.8 kilometre event, going clear in several moves but being recaptured each time.
However he, Erik Zabel (Germany), Alejandro Valverde and Samuel Sanchez (both Spain) got a slight gap inside the final kilometre; Bettini then came off Zabel's wheel inside the final 100 metres to scoop the long-awaited worlds win.
The 41-man main bunch finished hot on Sanchez' heels, two seconds back. Robbie McEwen (Australia) was fifth while defending champion Tom Boonen (Belgium) placed ninth. David McCann was Ireland's sole finisher, the Belfastman placing 120th, eight minutes and 45 seconds back. He missed an important split on the penultimate lap, losing the chance of a higher placing.
From an Irish point of view, the main story of the day was the aggression and courage shown by Nicolas Roche, some 19 years after his father Stephen won the same race in nearby Villach.
Although he is just 22 and was riding his first Elite road race championships, he rode strongly and went clear in a group of 12 after 44 kilometres, building up a maximum lead of 16 minutes.
They were joined by a chasing group of 14 riders with three laps of the tough 22.2 kilometre circuit remaining, and Roche then slipped back to the main field shortly afterwards. Both he and fellow young rider Philip Deignan pulled out with a lap to go, yet showed that they can fight it out for the top placings in the future.
"I am happy with how the two young riders performed," said Ireland manager Frank Campbell afterwards. "This was their first elite championships and the goal was all about gaining experience for the future. Philip is returning from glandular fever and rode well given his lack of racing this year. As for Nicolas, he went in the early move as planned and was away for over 160 kilometres; perhaps if he had stayed put in the bunch he would have finished with them, but the decision was made beforehand that he would cover the early break in the hope that David (McCann) would be able to do something in the finale.
"In the end, David was just in a bad position the second last time up the hill and lost out when there was a split. It was tough at that point; it's hard when you haven't been racing against these riders all year and have to step up a level.
"Nicolas and Philip are at an early stage of their careers and while they didn't finish, I think their performance augurs very well for the future. They will become stronger and more experienced, and have plenty of time on their side."
Meanwhile, five Irish riders were in action on Saturday. Mark Cassidy was best of the four competitors in the under-23 race won by Gerald Ciolek (Germany). He placed 49th, while Daniel Martin was next home in 65th place. Paídi O'Brien and Ryan Connor were 72nd and 124th respectively.
Siobhan Dervan showed her good progression since last year when she was 66th out of 135 starters in the women's road race. Twelve months after being an early retiree from the worlds in Madrid, she finished in a large group going for 45th place, some five minutes and 55 seconds behind Dutch winner Marianne Vos.
