September 25, 2005 – Belgium’s Tom Boonen has capped a terrific season with a magnificent win at the Elite Men’s Road Race World Championships today in Madrid, Spain, winning the 273 km race in a sprint over Spain’s Alejandro Valverde and France’s Anthony Geslin.

The race began in traditional fashion, with an early break gaining mega-time as the peloton was content to sit and wait. The early break consisted of four riders: Krasimir Vasilev (Bulgaria), Saul Raisin (USA), Juan Carlos Lopez Martin (Colombia), and Dmitriy Muravyev (Kazakhstan).

Although Martin would eventually be dropped, the break did manage to establish a large gap – almost 10 minutes at one point – but was caught with 60 km to go when the threesome gave up their show.

At this point it was mostly the Italians and Brits who took up the chase, and the attacks began. Joost Posthuma of the Netherlands attacked and was caught by Paco Mancebo (Spain), Fillipo Pozzato (Italy), among others – but the pack, as always, was hot on their heels.

At this point, Australia was leading the chase for their star sprinter Robbie McEwen, and Spain’s Oscar Perreiro and Dane Jakob Piil launched with another solid move. But they were caught by Paulo Bettini (Italy) and others as another lead group formed with Miguel Martin Perdiguero (Spain), Allan Davis (Aus), Sergey Lagutin (Uzb), Philippe Gilbert (Bel), Luis Laverde (Col), Patrick Calcagni (Swi) and Fabian Wegmann (Ger).

From there, Wegmann and Bettini launched into what seemed to be a killer move. Following that, Piil attacked as Andrey Kashechkin (Kazakhstan) and Vuelta star and Denis Menchov tried to bridge to the break. But in the dying kilometres another break was created as the remainder were caught – again it was Bettini, Michael Boogerd (Netherlands) and Alex Vinokourov (Kazakhstan).

And as the leaders approached the finish line the pack was right on their heels. But they waited too long and with 500m to go the leaders were swarmed with Tom Boonen taking the win out of a lead group of less than thirty riders. So as the experts predicted – it was a bunch sprint, but not the 100-man gallop that many had expected.

Of the three Canadians competing, Ryder Hesjedal was 78th, 4:18 behind. The two other Canucks, last minute replacement Dominique Perras and 2005 National Champion Francois Parisien, did not finish.

2005 Road World Championships – Madrid, Spain

1. Tom Boonen (Belgium) 6:26:10
2. Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spain)
3. Anthony Geslin (France)
4. Marcus Ljungqvist (Sweden)
5. Murilo Fischer (Brazil)
6. Jakob Piil (Denmark)
7. Alexandr Kolobnev (Russian Federation)
8. Andreas Klier (Germany)
9. Julian Dean (New Zealand)
10. Martin Elmiger (Switzerland)
11. Janez Brajkovic (Slovenia)
12. Steffen Wesemann (Switzerland)
13. Paolo Bettini (Italy)
14. Gregory Rast (Switzerland)
15. Thomas Dekker (Netherlands)
16. Constantino Zaballa Gutierrez (Spain)
17. Koos Moerenhout (Netherlands)
18. Michael Boogerd (Netherlands)
19. Laurent Brochard (France)
20. Gorazd Stangelj (Slovenia)
21. Alexandr Vinokourov (Kazakhstan)
22. Marcos Antonio Serrano Rodriguez (Spain)
23. Guido Trenti (USA) all s.t.
24. Denis Menchov (Russian Federation) 0:10
25. Mario Aerts (Belgium) 0:11
26. Nick Nuyens (Belgium) 0:21
27. Bjorn Leukemans (Belgium) 0:23
28. Alexandre Usov (Belarus) 0:25
29. Erik Zabel (Germany)
30. Robbie McEwen (Australia)
31. Uros Murn (Slovenia)
32. Rene Haselbacher (Austria)
33. Aurelien Clerc (Switzerland)
34. Peter Van Petegem (Belgium)
35. Alessandro Petacchi (Italy)
36. Alejandro Alberto Borrajo (Argentina)
37. Matija Kvasina (Croatia)
38. Sergey Lagutin (Uzbekistan)
39. Lars Ytting Bak (Denmark)
40. Jan Hruska (Czech Republic)
41. Roger Hammond (Great Britain)
42. Mykhailo Khalilov (Ukraine)
43. Jan Valach (Slovakia)
44. Piotr Wadecki (Poland)
45. Marek Rutkiewicz (Poland)
46. Vladimir Gusev (Russian Federation)
47. Christophe Le Mevel (France)
48. Miguel Angel Martin Perdiguero (Spain)
49. Bram Tankink (Netherlands)
50. Oscar Pereiro Sio (Spain)
51. Jean-Patrick Nazon (France)
52. Karsten Kroon (Netherlands)
53. Denys Kostyuk (Ukraine)
54. Filippo Pozzato (Italy)
55. George David (South Africa)
56. Juan Antonio Flecha Giannoni (Spain)
57. Devolder Stijn (Belgium)
58. Andrey Kashechkin (Kazakhstan)
59. Freddie Rodriguez (USA)
60. Joost Posthuma (Netherlands)
61. Serguei Ivanov (Russian Federation)
62. Igor Astarloa Askasibar (Spain)
63. Marco Velo (Italy)
64. Rolf Aldag (Germany)
65. Pieter Weening (Netherlands)
66. Matteo Tosatto (Italy)
67. Sylvain Chavanel (France) all s.t.
68. Francisco Mancebo Perez (Spain) 0:36
69. David Blanco Rodriguez (Spain) s.t.
70. Peter Wrolich (Austria) 0:43
71. Leon Van Bon (Netherlands) 0:47
72. Allan Davis (Australia) 1:12
73. Luca Paolini (Italy) 1:16
74. Vladimir Efimkin (Russian Federation) 1:46
75. Mark Scanlon (Ireland) 2:37
76. Thomas Lovkvist (Sweden) 2:45
77. Philippe Gilbert (Belgium) s.t.
78. Ryder Hesjedal (Canada) 4:18
79. Pedro Soeiro (Portugal) 4:50
80. James Lewis Perry (South Africa) 4:57
81. Marc Wauters (Belgium) s.t.
82. Patrick Calcagni (Switzerland) 5:04
83. Michael Rogers (Australia) 5:06
84. Giovanni Lombardi (Italy) s.t.
85. Martin Prazdnovsky (Slovakia) 5:19
86. John Lieswyn (USA) s.t.
87. Simon Gerrans (Australia) 5:25
88. Baden Cooke (Australia)
89. Maxim Gourov (Kazakhstan)
90. Rafael Nuritdinov (Uzbekistan)
91. Jorg Jaksche (Germany)
92. Cedric Vasseur (France) all s.t.
93. Leonardo Fabio Duque (Colombia) 6:01
94. Henk Vogels (Australia)
95. Jaroslaw Zarebski (Poland)
96. Bartosz Huzarski (Poland)
97. Fabian Wegmann (Germany)
98. Markus Zberg (Switzerland)
99. Jan Svorada (Czech Republic)
100. Petr Bencik (Czech Republic)
101. Mathew Hayman (Australia)
102. Andrey Mizourov (Kazakhstan)
103. Ryan Cox (South Africa)
104. Ian McLeod (South Africa)
105. Daniele Bennati (Italy)
106. Roger Beuchat (Switzerland)
107. Matej Mugerli (Slovenia)
108. Guillermo Ruben Bongiorno (Argentina)
109. Lorenzo Bernucci (Italy)
110. Bernhard Eisel (Austria)
111. Magnus Backstedt (Sweden)
112. Bradley Wiggins (Great Britain)
113. Carlos Da Cruz (France)
114. Jimmy Casper (France)
115. Thor Hushovd (Norway) all s.t.
116. Markus Fothen (Germany) 7:03
117. Matthias Kessler (Germany)
118. Sergey Yakovlev (Kazakhstan) both s.t.
119. Christophe Kern (France) 7:05
120. Raivis Belohvosciks (Latvia) 9:50
121. Luis Felipe Laverde (Colombia) 9:51
122. Kim Kirchen (Luxembourg) 10:43
123. Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland) 10:45
124. Robert Radosz (Poland) 12:51
125. Koji Fukushima (Japan) 12:56
126. Martin Riska (Slovakia) 14:45
127. Hugo Sabido (Portugal) 14:47
128. Buno Neves (Portugal) s.t.
129. Martin Garrido (Argentina) 14:51
130. Peter Mazur (Poland) 14:55
131. Mitja Mahoric (Slovenia) 17:27
132. Marcio May (Brazil) 19:19
133. Aleksejs Saramotins (Latvia) 25:40
134. Rodney Green (South Africa) 27:10
135. Makoto Iijima (Japan) 27:12
136. Mahdi Sohrabi (Islamic Republic of Iran) 27:13

Did not finish:

Dominique Perras (Canada)
Francois Parisien (Canada)