September 24, 2011 (Copenhagen, Denmark) – Denmark served up yet another perfect day for the Junior Men’s road race with temperatures ranging between 12-16C and skies varying from overcast to sunny and blue. The 170-rider peloton meant business and after 126km (9 x 14km) of ferocious racing from the gun, there were only three riders left from a 6-rider break that formed on the final lap, trying to outsprint each other as the pack that was breathing down their collective necks was just seconds back.

At the line it was France’s Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier escaping with 150m to go sprinting for gold in 2:48:58 followed by Belgium rider Martjin Degreve in second place while Dutch cyclist Steven Lammertink took the bronze both with the same time as the winner.

Lecuisinier’s teammate Florian Senechal led the field sprint for fourth, at three seconds back, while Germany’s Rick Zabel (son of retired sprint star Eric Zabel) took fifth and Russia’s Roman Ivlev was sixth with the same time as Senechal.

Adam De Vos finished in the pack as the top Canadian in 65 place while Yohan Patry and Benjamin Perry were involved in a crash late in the race and finished 15:40 minutes back. The reigning Canadian road race champ, Emile Jean, was injured in another crash and could not continue while national ITT champ, Alexander Cataford, also did not finish.

Lecuisinier’s gold and Senechal’s fourth place come on the heels of gold and silver for France in the U23 Men’s event won the day before. After several years of watching other countries take the world and Olympic laurels, France has definitely returned.

Lecuisinier recognized this fact at the post-race press conference when his first words were a “grand merci” to his teammates, especially Guillaume Martin who did much of the French team’s work, setting things up for the break that was eventually successful for Lecuisinier – Martin himself finished in 80th at 2:49 minutes back. At the medal ceremony Lecuisinier invited the entire French junior men’s team to join him.

“The course prioritized a lot of movement in the race – lots of breaks and team tactics to be used as much as possible,” said Belgian Degrere who added, “We had a hard, fast race. It’s for sprinters, but only strong sprinters. It was a very fast track for powerful sprinters – not really a world championship for the strongest and fastest man but for the most powerful sprinter.”

Speaking about the decisive 6-rider break, Degrere said, “With two Dutchmen, two Belgians, and two French in the breakaway, our plan was for the Belgians to attack in the last two kilometers. It was very good for me, but Pierre was very strong,” he concluded about the final sprint.

Lammertink lost his teammate when he couldn’t hold on to the break’s fast speed, but didn’t think of that situation as negative. “It wasn’t really a disadvantage because France and Belgium had to do all the work and I could just slide along and keep myself fit to do all the work at the end for the sprint.”

The French team had two strategies – one was to get a rider away in a successful break and work to keep him out there. If the break was not successful, it was to position Lecuisinier as their sprinter in a group finish. Eventually both plans were executed.

The successful break included their designated sprinter. “If the break did not last then they had to try to take over,” explained Lecuisinier. There were French riders in significant breaks early in the race, including the first one where 13 riders got away including four French, led by Pierre-Roger Latour, two Danes, two Dutch riders, and one each representing Belgium, Italian, British, Estonian, German, Austrian and Norwegian.

They had an 18:02 second lead at 15km but by the 28km mark the lead group had shrunk to only two riders – France’s Alexi Gougeard and Belgium rider Dean Myngher. They stayed out in front with a lead of up to 1:12 minutes, but by 98km were caught by the peloton.

With only twenty-eight kilometers left, the race went crazy, with break after break trying to get established but all was for naught until the decisive six-man break came heading into the last 14km as Lecuisinier, his teammate Martin, Degreve, Lammertink and his teammate Ivar Slik along with Belgium Rob Leemans.

After a blistering pace, the group shrunk to Lecuisinier, Degreve and Lammertink but by this time the field behind was organized into a powerful chase. As the riders turned the last corner into the climb to the finish, the field was gaining. It was a sprint of three, but also a sprint by three against the approaching group. Could they do it?

Lecuisinier timed his attack perfectly dropping his two rivals and with three seconds to spare over the pack he hit the finish line and the French celebrations could commence again.

Results

1. Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier (France) 2:48:58
2. Martijn Degreve (Belgium)
3. Steven Lammertink (Netherlands)
4. Florian Senechal (France) 0:03
5. Rick Zabel (Germany)
6. Roman Ivlev (Russian Federation)
7. Daniel Hoelgaard (Norway)
8. Nicolas Marini (Italy)
9. Stan Godrie (Netherlands)
10. Frederik Plesner (Denmark)
11. Soren Andersen (Denmark)
12. Sondre H Enger (Norway)
13. Niccolo’ Bonifazio (Italy)
14. Martin Otonicar (Slovenia)
15. Kevin Deltombe (Belgium)
16. Calvin Watson (Australia)
17. Adrien Legros (France)
18. Alexander Mazhechev (Russian Federation)
19. Aksel N?mmela (Estonia)
20. Luka Pibernik (Slovenia)
21. Doron Hekic (Slovenia)
22. Richard Dijkshoorn (Netherlands)
23. Jade Julius (South Africa)
24. Owain Doull (Great Britain)
25. Jan Dieteren (Germany)
26. Boris VallÈe (Belgium)
27. Emil Andersson (Sweden)
28. Guy Gabay (Israel)
29. Jack Wilson (Ireland)
30. Roman Semyonov (Kazakhstan)
31. Joaquin Torres Parraga (Spain)
32. Maarten Van Trijp (Netherlands)
33. Vitaliy Marukhin (Kazakhstan)
34. Jon Dibben (Great Britain)
35. ThÈry Schir (Switzerland)
36. Daniel Paulus (Austria)
37. Ben Einhoren (Israel)
38. Michal Vakoc (Czech Republic)
39. Rob Leemans (Belgium)
40. Cristian Raileanu (Republic of Moldova)
41. Dion Smith (New Zealand)
42. Vadim Zhuravlev (Russian Federation)
43. Daan Myngheer (Belgium)
44. Olivier Le Gac (France)
45. Volodymyr Dzhus (Ukraine)
46. Antoine Mores (Luxembourg)
47. Thomas Zechmeister (Czech Republic)
48. Magnus Cort Nielsen (Denmark)
49. Sandis Eislers (Latvia)
50. Mihkel R‰im (Estonia)
51. AntÛnio Barbio (Portugal)
52. JosÈ Alfredo Aguirre (Mexico)
53. Lukas Spengler (Switzerland)
54. Hiroki Nishimura (Japan)
55. Krists Neilands (Latvia)
56. Alexey Vermeulen (United States Of America)
57. Yuriy Vasyliv (Germany)
58. Tormod Jacobsen (Norway)
59. Sviatoslav Lupitskyi (Ukraine)
60. Paul Lynch (United States Of America)
61. Nikolaos Ioannidis (Greece)
62. Ivar Slik (Netherlands)
63. Silvio Herklotz (Germany)
64. Jojo Leal (Portugal)
65. Adam De Vos (Canada)
66. Aleksey Rybalkin (Russian Federation)
67. Emil Vinjebo (Denmark)
68. Romain Faussurier (France)
69. Christophe Braun (Luxembourg)
70. Sergio Escutia (Mexico)
71. Marlen Zmorka (Ukraine)
72. Alistair Slater (Great Britain)
73. David Edwards (Australia)
74. Mate Radonics (Hungary)
75. Pierre-Roger Latour (France)
76. Tobias Derler (Austria) 0:13
77. Paulius Siskevicius (Lithuania)
78. Bradley Linfield (Australia)
79. Miloa Borisavljevic (Serbia)
80. Guillaume Martin (France)
81. ¡bel Kenyeres (Hungary)
82. Marko Pavlic (Slovenia)
83. Dennis Paulus (Austria) 0:17
84. Arakdiusz Owsian (Poland)
85. Josip Rumac (Croatia)
86. Bruno Maltar (Croatia)
87. Matej Mohoric (Slovenia)
88. Mathew Lipscomb (United States Of America)
89. Roy Goldstein (Israel) 0:21
90. Marcus FÂglum Karlsson (Sweden)
91. Aku SilvÈnius (Finland) 0:24
92. Matthew Holmes (Great Britain)
93. Med Amine Mahmoudi (Tunisia) 0:26
94. Ryan Mullen (Ireland)
95. Fraser Gough (New Zealand)
96. Michel H¸bsch (Luxembourg) 0:29
97. Naoya Uchino (Japan)
98. Alexander Edmonson (Australia) 0:37
99. Simone Andreetta (Italy) 0:39
100. Davide Martinelli (Italy)
101. Nick Schultz (Australia) 0:50
102. Pawel Samol (Poland) 0:57
103. Alexander Kamp Egested (Denmark) 1:02
104. Tilegen Maidos (Kazakhstan) 1:09
105. Miguel ¡ngel Benito (Spain) 1:10
106. Alexis Gougeard (France) 1:18
107. Isaac Yaguaro (Venezuela) 1:27
108. Ludwig Hallerˆd (Sweden) 1:43
109. Alex Darville (United States Of America) 2:11
110. Mario Daako (Slovakia) 2:34
111. Sang-Hoon Park (Korea) 2:42
112. Amir Kolahdouz (Islamic Republic of Iran) 3:12
113. Gilles Heymes (Luxembourg)
114. Oskar Nisu (Estonia) 3:28
115. Olli Teivaala (Finland)
116. William David MuÒoz Perez (Colombia)
117. Tom Schwarmes (Luxembourg) 3:32
118. Julian Barrientos (Argentina) 4:21
119. Lubos Malovec (Slovakia)
120. Francisco Jose Medina Abril (Spain) 4:23
121. B·lint VarrÛ (Hungary) 4:26
122. Sam Lowe (Great Britain) 4:48
123. Erik Baaka (Slovakia)
124. Tom Bohli (Switzerland) 4:59
125. Amaury Capiot (Belgium) 5:10
126. Stefan Kueng (Switzerland) 8:31
127. Fabrizio Von Nacher Suess (Mexico)
128. Djordje Stevanovic (Serbia)
129. Tsz Chin Wong (Hong Kong, China)
130. Hayden Mccormick (New Zealand) 8:38
131. Juan Ignacio Curuchet (Argentina)
132. James Oram (New Zealand)
133. Rasmus Lund (Denmark) 9:00
134. Benjamin Dietrich (Germany) 9:12
135. Daniel Turek (Czech Republic)
136. Ondrej Tkadlec (Czech Republic)
137. Timur Yambulatov (Uzbekistan) 0:18
138. Kristopher Jorgenson (United States Of America) 0:10:14
139. Alberto Bettiol (Italy) 0:11:43
140. Jackson Law (Australia)
141. Ohko Shimizu (Japan) 0:13:01
142. Ahmet Orken (Turkey) 0:13:35
143. Colby Wait-Molyneux (United States Of America) 0:15:40
144. Yohan Patry (Canada)    
145. Benjamin Perry (Canada)    
146. Olivier Le Court De Billot (Mauritius) 0:15:51
DNF Pascal Ackermann (Germany)
DNF Dylan Groenewegen (Netherlands)
DNF Alexander Cataford (Canada)    
DNF Kristoffer Skjerping (Norway)
DNF Ioannis Spanopoulos (Greece)
DNF Amado Goncalco Duarte Basilio (Portugal)
DNF Ezequiel Linaza (Argentina)
DNF Patryk Komisarek (Poland)
DNF Kostadin Petrov (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia)
DNF Peteris Janevics (Latvia)
DNF Mohammadreza Eimanigoloujeh (Islamic Republic of Iran)
DNF Luis Gomes (Portugal)
DNF Velickovic Aleksa (Serbia)
DNF Daniel Biedermann (Austria)
DNF Maral-Erdene Batmunkh (Mongolia)
DNF Satjakul Sianylam (Thailand)
DNF Ricardo Teixeira (Portugal)
DNF Alexey Ryabkin (Russian Federation)
DNF Roope Nurmi (Finland)
DNF Matteo Cigala (Italy)
DNF Alex Frame (New Zealand)
DNF Ilar Arslanov (Russian Federation)
DNF Emile Jean (Canada)