UCI Elite Mens World Road Race Championship 2007

 

Stuttgart (Germany)

Report and images by Larry Hickmott

 

Gold for Bettini in Stuttgart

 

Gold again for Italy and Bettini.

 

Defending World Road Race Champion, Paolo Bettini of Italy who is also the reigning Olympic champion, won his second rainbow jersey in a row when he outsprinted surprise contender Alexandr Kolobnev of Russia and local rider Stefan Schumacher of Germany after almost seven hours of racing under a hot sun. David Millar of Britain was 54th and only a lack of racing in his legs after his recent crash stopped him from being a contender at the end.

 

 

The day in Stuttgart
The day began early for the British team and at 7am, David Millar was tucking into a huge plate of pasta as he began to fuel up for the day ahead. It was at the breakfast table we realised what a huge cycling fan David is when one of the mechanics, Mark Ingham, started throwing names at him and in a flash, David would recall the year so and so won a World Road Championship.

 

Also at the breakfast table, and taking part in the impromptu quiz were T-Mobile teammates Roger Hammond and Mark Cavendish. It was the start of a long day for them  on the road as the cloudless sky meant it was going to be a hot seven hour race around the hills of the German city.

 

The popular expectation was that the race would be fairly casual to begin with and slowly increase in pace until the all out thrash over the final few laps. The race however was on from the word go and all the Brits remained in contention until lap 10 when Mark Cavendish was the first to pull out. Roger Hammond followed him a few laps later and that left British favourite David Millar in the mix as he had been last year.

 

Millar remained in contention right up until the final lap when a lack of racing finally took its toll and when the double whammy from Bettini came on the final climb, Millar could only look on as the Italian rode away from the Brit and most of what was left of the field at that point.

 

Bettini went onto win the sprint for the Gold whilst Millar rolled in with 54th place and at the team bus explained how the race went for him. “That was very hard” he said calmly as he sat on the back step of the Great Britain team van with his girlfriend at his side. “That was probably one of the hardest races in terms of numbers that I have ever done – ie, the amount of climbing we done, the speed at which we did it, the amount of calories we burnt and the power we put out.”

 

“To be honest, I am rather satisfied because I was probably one of the few guys in that front group who hasn’t raced this month. I do feel if I had had at least one race in my legs I would have been able to go with that group on the last lap. That is why you have to do those races before the Worlds be it Poland or the Vuelta otherwise you just won’t be competitive when it comes to the crunch.”

 

“I did everything right and was right at the front on the last climb went it went and just couldn’t go with it. That’s life. The conditions were actually perfect. I could not have asked for better as it would have been treacherous in the wet.”

 

“It was a beautiful course and if you had the legs, you were in that group at the end. To be honest  I was thinking about it as we were going round and the way the Road Teams for the Worlds are put together, it’s about power sprinters as the primary tactic. So more often than not there is always a regrouping. Teams like Spain and Italy rely on that tactic and they only give carte blanche on the last lap to the big hitters to go and this was one of the few courses where they managed to stay away.”

 

“It has been a long year, a hard year behind the scenes and I have made more come backs than Mike Tyson this year coming back from sickness, injuries, and miscellaneous things. I am pleased to have got through it.”

 

Above: Gavin King hands David Millar a feed bag. During the race, he had the best part of 20 Gels, five or six bars and a bottle every lap (14 laps) plus a couple of cokes. Notice his bik eonly has the one bottle cage.

 

Roger Hammond: “That was hard out there. The problem for us was that it was just climbing. There was nothing else for us to race on really and if you can’t climb? They never really went easy on the climbs and so even tempo was hard for us and there was no recovery on the circuit at all. It was either flat out down hill or flat out up hill which made it a really hard Worlds.”

 

“For anyone thinking that it was slow at the start because we were all together, we did an opening lap of 29 minutes and when you look at the fastest lap of the under 23’s their fastest was twenty eight and half minutes. My SRM was telling me I was 0doing over 500/600 watts and the average for the day was 300 watts so when you think about that for six and half hours, that was one a hard race.”

 

 

“It was a hard course but a course is only as hard as its ridden and as it was, they went for it from early on. Last year’s worlds was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be and this years a lot harder because they went so bloody fast.”

 

Roger went on to add that he has a sinus infection and that when he flew in, he had a stinking headache as the plane made its descent. He further explained that today his nose was running all day and says he is rather annoyed at not being 100 per cent healthy. “I’m going to go and see our team doctor and see what he says” he added as he went in search of the T-Mobile people.

 

Mark Cavendish: “It was a real hard course that. You could see every lap the group being whittled down and my job here was to hang on as long as possible and I did 10 laps which is more than I expected to do. I did manage a little work as it was, to go back and get some food and that for the lads.”

 

Our 'Cav' is becoming a fashion guru and was sporting a Gucci bag with his kit as he arrived this morning.

 

Asked to compare how hard the race was to the others he has ridden,  the rider with 10 victories under his belt in 2007 says “it was just the course and the Worlds is a different style of race altogether. Usually when a group of 40 goes away, it stays away and in this race two big groups came back. I have not ridden on a course as difficult as this all year. Maybe the classics but I didn’t get so far in them (Mark was ill early season).”

 

“My form is not 100 percent but even if I had been 100 percent, there was no chance of me winning that. Considering how I have been in the last few weeks, I am really happy with that and Dave (Millar) was there to the end so that was good.”

 

Asked how valuable the experience was for him to ride a World Championship Road Race and get a feel for the level, he replied “unbelievably important. I am  looking to win the World Championships one day so this experience of seeing how the race goes and how patient you have to be was important and I am so glad I came.”

 

PHOTOS

 

Mario was the driver of the Barloworld bus which provided the British riders with some where to go before and after races.

 

The start of the Elite Men's Road Race

 

Defending champion Paolo Bettini leads the race away.

 

An early break was never given much room to build up a lead.

 

The Dutch team spent a lot of time chasing but had little to show for it in the results.

 

Mark Cavendish

 

David Millar -- bell lap and still in what was left of the peloton.

 

The last four laps and the riders were giving it full gas on the climbs and the panic could be seen in many a riders eyes.

 

The medal contenders battle for the line

 

Tyres on Roger Hammond and Mark Cavendish's wheels.

 

The Italian bus was next to the GB one and was always a hive of activity with riders, staff and fans milling around.

Mark proudly shows his T-Mobile Director Sportif Alan Pieper his handy work on his race helmet as the team colours are added to the magenta.

 

Mark signs autographs.

 

An engineer from SRM comes to hook up the box for Roger Hammond's race bike.

 

Result
1. Paolo Bettini (Italy) 6.44.43 (39.642 km/h)
2. Alexandr Kolobnev (Russia)                             
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)                                      

 

54. David Millar (Great Britain) 1.05