Jakob Egholm won the men’s junior Road Race in spectacular fashion at the UCI Road World Championships Doha 2016 yesterday.
In the third Road Race of the competition, the Dane was the first to successfully carry home a solo attack and finished first in 2:58.19. Seven seconds behind the winner, German Niklas Markl and Swiss Reto Muller took silver and bronze in the sprint of an 18-man group of first chasers.
“I can’t believe it,” Egholm said. “I haven’t won a race since May. I went into the race with the expectation to help my teammates in the sprint. When we were in the breakaway I sat still at the back of the group to save energy. Then, when I took my turn, teammate Julius Johansen went and I got a gap too and went after him. He did not have the power in his legs, so I went for it. It was an individual time trial towards the end.”
Egholm is only the second Dane in the history to win the juniors Road Race. Fifteen years before Egholm was born, his compatriot Soren Lilholt won the title in 1983.
Markl took the second German Road Race silver after Pascal Ackermann grabbed a medal of the same colour in the Men’s Under 23 race on Thursday.
Germany has now won seven medals in Doha – Team Time Trials results included – and are currently on top of the leaderboard.
Muller took the first Swiss individual medal at the championships.
It was full pace from scratch in the race. The peloton was strung out straight from the start, with riders attacking right and left of the road. Dutchman Jan Mobach came first at the first crossing of the finish line, but his effort faded entering the feed zone.
Awet Habtom of Eritrea attacked time and again. The African rider was joined by Slovenian Tadej Pogacar at first instance and then by Dutchman Dennis van der Horst.
The merciless peloton, however, caught the trio. From the third lap onwards the peloton was blown into several groups and lone riders in between.
Belgian sprinter Gerben Thijsen suffered from a mechanical in the back rows.
Brandon McNulty, who already won the junior’s Individual Time Trial earlier this week, set up an attack together with Julius Johansen and Alexys Brunel. With about 50 kilometres to go, the three took a 15-second lead, but were caught by the first chase group after a brave effort. Several riders managed to join the first group from behind and then a team of twenty-odd riders had a 45-second advantage over the second pack with two laps to go.
Heading into the final lap, Slovenia and Denmark had three riders each in the 20-men front group, France and Switzerland had two men, while all the others were on their own. When Johansen attacked with Egholm leaving a small gap, no one was able to respond.