Amalie Dideriksen edged out pre-race favourite Kirsten Wild with a well-timed sprint to win the women’s road race world title at the Pearl yesterday.
In a tense and tactical 134.5km race, where all the big players traded moves, the 20-year-old double junior world champion from Denmark took on the dominant Dutch team and grabbed the rainbow stripes in a thrilling finish.
“I dreamed of a top ten... my team-mates were amazing today, I had a small crash and they brought me back. I’m just really happy,” says Dideriksen after the race, who admitted her win ‘is a surprise for everybody’.
Dideriksen overcame the disparity in number of teammates compared to her rivals to beat Wild on her birthday, who looked bemused to see Dideriksen motor past her at the finish line. The race seemed entirely in Wild’s grasp, but she struggled to pull away and was caught cold by Dideriksen’s blistering finish.
The 2013 and 2014 junior world champion Dideriksen sat in the 33-year-old’s wheel and passed her in the final 50m to take the title. Dideriksen only had two teammates – Julie Leth and Cecile Uttrup Ludwig – in the small Danish team. Finland’s Lotta Lepisto came third and defending champion Britain’s Lizzie Deignan ended a tough year with a fourth-placed finish.
The strong Dutch team attempted to set the race alight with around 70km to go as the likes of Marianne Vos, Ellen van Dijk and Chantal Blaak attacked off the front to force a change of pace in the peloton.
“I knew the Dutch girls were going to lead out Kirsten Wild, and I wanted to be in that wheel so badly. It was a hard fight for that wheel with the other girls,” the newly world champion said.
Wild, record winner in the Ladies Tour of Qatar, went full pace when Vos gave way, but her sprint was just not enough this time.
“It would’ve been good if there were more breakaways. But I’m not really disappointed,” she explained and added that despite losing the gold medal, her birthday party will definitely occur: “It’s my birthday today and I’m going to have a party tonight.”
The surprise bronze medal for Lepisto was the first ever senior podium place at the championships for Finland. “I knew I had to always stay in the front. My teammates, although they’re not the strongest riders around, stuck together. The national spirit was there for all to see,” said the Finn.
Deignan sounded satisfied with her show and gave credit to the team. “I really loved it, what a great team, they put it all on the line,” said Deignan.
“We worked well and going forward that’s something I feel very positive about. Looking forward to Norway (in 2017) for instance, we can go there in a group of women who can really pull together and that’s an exciting prospect.”
Before the riders even left Qatar Foundation, the Italians had to cope with a serious setback, because two-time world champion and ace sprinter Giorgia Bronzini couldn’t start due to illness. Once the flag was dropped for the official start after a few kilometres of neutral zone, Japanese Eri Yonamine attacked. She quickly built a 25-second gap with the peloton watching her go. At the back of the bunch Noura Alameeri crashed at about the same time Yonamine attacked and the Kuwaiti seemed to have broken her collarbone. Her sister and only team mate Nada waited for her to get back on the bike, but both riders quit the race just after it had started.
Amber Neben suffered a mechanical problem on the way from Qatar Foundation to the Pearl, but she quickly returned to the peloton. Yonamine entered the seven laps and 15.2 kilometre of Pearl Qatar first and had a 35-second lead with seven laps to go at the first passage of the finish line. With the British and the Belgians up front, the peloton got nearer to Yonamine and when the gap was diminished to a mere twenty seconds, Swiss Nicole Hanselmann decided to jump after the Japanese. She caught up and the two of them stayed ahead for more than a full lap.
Wild suffered a crash at a roundabout, but she was brought back to the bunch by teammate Roxane Knetemann. With the Dutch ladies extremely active in the front of the bunch, the two leaders were caught with about five laps to go. Amy Pieters, Ellen van Dijk, Annemiek van Vleuten and three-time world champion Marianne Vos attacked one after each other with mainly the Americans neutralising their attempts.
When the Dutch tornado faded, Amber Neben took advantage. The fresh Individual Time Trial World Champion escaped from the bunch and quickly built a 50-second gap. Great Britain, with defending champion Lizzie Deignan and Australia, in service of sprinting ace Chloe Hosking, led most of the chase with Dutch and German help. Neben got caught with only one lap to go. She eventually finished 98th.
The Dutch gathered to organise the sprint for Kirsten Wild. Great Britain and Canada tried to set up their own trains, but the Dutch would not have it any other way.
With Annemiek van Vleuten, Olympic Champion Anna van der Breggen and three-fold world champion Marianne Vos, Wild had the best lead-out one could ever dream of, but the Dutch train had a stowaway wagon with Dideriksen behind them, and she ran away with the title in the end.
The men’s race takes place on Sunday, with Mark Cavendish bidding for a second world title following his 2011 triumph in Copenhagen.
 
Results women’s road race (134.5km)
1. Amalie Dideriksen (Denmark), 3:10:27”
2. Kirsten Wild (Netherlands)
3. Lotto Lepisto (Finland)
4. Lizzie Deignan (Great Britain)
5. Marta Bastianelli (Italy)
6. Roxanne Fournier (France)
7. Chloe Hosking (Australia)
8. Sheyla Gutierrez (Spain)
9. Joelle Numainville (Canada)
10. Jolien D’Hoore (Belgium), all same time