The rain began soon after the 203 starters got underway, but no one could figure out why the Polish team were stamping their authority on the peloton so early, and for so long, as they chased down an early break of four riders who gained as much as 15+ minutes.
At the end of the first lap of the 254.8km race (14 x 18.2km) a quartet including Carlos Quintero (Colombia), Matija Kvasina (Croatia), Oleksandr Polivoda (Ukraine) and Zydrunas Savickas (Lithuania) escaped and spent over two hours sharing duties up front as the rain gave way to sun.
The gap continued to fall but on lap 10 of 14 the Belgians and Italians began to wake up and take over for Poland, who had done their job protecting Kwiatkowski, while keeping him near the front and rested for the final assault. As Italy picked up the pace the gap to the leaders fell even faster but the peloton was shattered behind catching several big names off guard including Team Canada’s Ryan Anderson and Michael Woods. Their teammate Christian Meier had already withdrawn with stomach problems.
The rain returned and the peloton was reminded of the slippery roads with news of a Norwegian team car that had taken a turn badly and went into a ditch – no one was hurt except the bikes.
The lead break also fell apart as Quintero was now alone out front joined by Italy’s Giovanni Visconti and GBR’s Peter Kennaugh but they were caught by large chase group that included Tony Martin (Germany) who decided to try his luck at escaping but he was finally reeled in as well with two laps to go.
Visconti and Kennaugh went again but the peloton shut them down as three new leaders emerged Alessandro De Marchi (Italy), Cyril Gautier (France) and Michael Valgren Andersen (Denmark). The pack continued to chase them down with Kwiatkowski always near the front – then Vasil Kiryienka (Belarus) decided to bridge to the leaders adding more drama.
The fouresome started the final lap with five chasers and the pack just behind – it was still anyone’s race with 18.2km to go. The chasers were caught with Spain and Germany taking charge as the peloton could see the four leaders just ahead on the climb. On the descent the gap was dropping with only the final Mirador climb remaining.
With just under 8km to go Kwiatkowski made his bold move at the end of the descent catching everyone in a lull as he quickly bridged to the leaders. His attack continued as he dropped them all while ascending Mirador with only Andersen able to maintain contact, but soon he faded as well.
Sensing the danger Philippe Gilbert (Belgium) and Valverde led the chase taking Gerrans, Matti Breschel (Denmark), Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium) and Tony Gallopin (France) with them but Kwiatkowski had made the perfect move and was out of reach on the final stretch to the line.
The Polish star looked behind, raised his arms and the kissed his jersey as he claimed the biggest win of his career and made history winning Poland’s first Elite men’s title. Kwiatkowski was in shock dedicating the win to his team, his girlfriend, his family and Poland.
“It’s unbelievable,” said the winner. “I was feeling great on the last lap and I’m really grateful of my teammates for all their work. I was just going for the win and trying to take risks because some were calculating and waiting for the final climb.
“I knew from watching the U23 Men’s race it could be done this way. I just did my effort and had a little bit of a gap. This is just incredible. I’m so happy for my team and my country.”
For Team Canada it was a tough day at the office. “I was hoping for a better result but it’s the Worlds and everyone’s on top of their game. The Italians and Polish put the race to another level and we got caught…the field wasn’t handling it very well… I was in the mix for a while. I really liked this course but the pace was just too explosive,” said Anderson – full interview here.
For Woods it was a great accomplishment to make the worlds team for Canada even if the race didn’t turn out as he planned. “It was disappointing not to finish as I’d hope to be in the lead bunch. Still if you had told me 6 months ago that I was going to the Worlds I would have laughed. It was an up-and-down season but overall I’m pleased to be here – this was a good one to put in the books – and I look forward to next year.” – full interview here.
Full results below.
Results
1. Michal Kwiatkowski (Poland) 6:29:07
2. Simon Gerrans (Australia) 0:01
3. Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spain)
4. Matti Breschel (Denmark)
5. Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium)
6. Tony Gallopin (France)
7. Philippe Gilbert (Belgium) 0:04
8. Alexander Kristoff (Norway) 0:07
9. John Degenkolb (Germany)
10. Nacer Bouhanni (France)
11. Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland)
12. Ben Swift (Great Britain)
13. Sonny Colbrelli (Italy)
14. Michael Matthews (Australia)
15. Ramunas Navardauskas (Lithuania)
16. Daryl Impey (South Africa)
17. Maciej Paterski (Poland)
18. Bauke Mollema (Netherlands)
19. Warren Barguil (France)
20. Michael Valgren Andersen (Denmark)
21. Daniele Bennati (Italy)
22. Tom Dumoulin (Netherlands)
23. Rui Alberto Faria Da Costa (Portugal)
24. Jon Izaguirre Insausti (Spain)
25. Brent Bookwalter (United States Of America)
26. Nicolas Roche (Ireland)
27. Rigoberto Uran Uran (Colombia)
28. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Norway)
29. Petr Vakoc (Czech Republic) 0:14
30. Alex Howes (United States Of America)
31. Chris Anker S_rensen (Denmark)
32. Giovanni Visconti (Italy)
33. Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver (Spain) 0:17
34. Fabio Aru (Italy)
35. Yury Trofimov (Russian Federation)
36. Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spain)
37. Lars Petter Nordhaug (Norway)
38. Dominik Nerz (Germany) 0:21
39. Simon Geschke (Germany) 0:24
40. Vincenzo Nibali (Italy) 0:27
41. Giampaolo Caruso (Italy) 0:31
42. Grega Bole (Slovenia) 0:38
43. Peter Sagan (Slovakia) 0:42
44. Andriy Grivko (Ukraine) 0:50
45. Alessandro De Marchi (Italy) 1:03
46. Alexandr Kolobnev (Russian Federation) 1:05
47. Kristijan Durasek (Croatia)
48. Jan Bakelants (Belgium)
49. Tom Boonen (Belgium)
50. Sergei Chernetski (Russian Federation)
51. Jonathan Castroviejo Nicolas (Spain)
52. Ben Gastauer (Luxembourg)
53. Matthias Brandle (Austria) 1:27
54. Tiago Machado (Portugal) 1:32
55. Simon Clarke (Australia) 2:10
56. Ben Hermans (Belgium)
57. Wouter Poels (Netherlands) 2:19
58. Michal Golas (Poland) 2:31
59. Vasil Kiryienka (Belarus) 2:32
60. Cyril Gautier (France) 2:36
61. Jean-Christophe Peraud (France)
62. Romain Bardet (France)
63. Paul Martens (Germany) 2:39
64. Sep Vanmarcke (Belgium) 3:42
65. Imanol Erviti (Spain) 4:08
66. Michael Albasini (Switzerland) 5:12
67. Nelson Filipe Santos Simoes Oliveira (Portugal)
68. Georg Preidler (Austria)
69. Danilo Wyss (Switzerland)
70. Jhoan Esteban Chaves Rubio (Colombia)
71. Christopher Juul Jensen (Denmark)
72. Kristjan Fajt (Slovenia) 6:11
73. Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg (South Africa)
74. Damiano Caruso (Italy)
75. Ilnur Zakarin (Russian Federation)
76. Jonathan Monsalve (Venezuela)
77. Sylvain Chavanel (France)
78. Alexsandr Dyachenko (Kazakhstan)
79. Jesus Herrada Lopez (Spain)
80. Manuel Quinziato (Italy)
81. Adam Hansen (Australia)
82. Peter Kennaugh (Great Britain) 6:14
83. Zdenek Stybar (Czech Republic) 7:01
84. Daniel Martin (Ireland) 8:25
85. Andrey Amador Bakkazakova (Costa Rica) 0:11:59
86. Jack Bauer (New Zealand) 0:13:43
87. Peter Velits (Slovakia)
88. Andrey Zeits (Kazakhstan) 0:14:53
89. Johan Van Summeren (Belgium)
90. Stef Clement (Netherlands) 0:15:23
91. Jan Barta (Czech Republic)
92. Mykhaylo Kononenko (Ukraine)
93. Andriy Khripta (Ukraine) 0:15:34
94. Miyataka Shimizu (Japan) 0:20:22
95. George Bennett (New Zealand)
DNF Andre Fernando S. Martins Cardoso (Portugal)
DNF Sergio Miguel Moreira Paulinho (Portugal)
DNF Jos_ Joao Pimenta Costa Mendes (Portugal)
DNF Daniel Navarro Garcia (Spain)
DNF Luis Leon Sanchez Gil (Spain)
DNF Kevin Reza (France)
DNF Geoffrey Soupe (France)
DNF Wilco Kelderman (Netherlands)
DNF Steven Kruijswijk (Netherlands)
DNF Tom Jelte Slagter (Netherlands)
DNF Dylan Van Baarle (Netherlands)
DNF Pieter Weening (Netherlands)
DNF Rohan Dennis (Australia)
DNF Cadel Evans (Australia)
DNF Heinrich Haussler (Australia)
DNF Mathew Hayman (Australia)
DNF Rory Sutherland (Australia)
DNF Jelle Vanendert (Belgium)
DNF Tim Wellens (Belgium)
DNF Stephen Cummings (Great Britain)
DNF Christopher Froome (Great Britain)
DNF David Millar (Great Britain)
DNF Luke Rowe (Great Britain)
DNF Geraint Thomas (Great Britain)
DNF Adam Yates (Great Britain)
DNF Simon Yates (Great Britain)
DNF Janier Alexis Acevedo Colle (Colombia)
DNF Winner Anacona Gomez (Colombia)
DNF Julian David Arredondo Moreno (Colombia)
DNF Carlos Alberto Betancur Gomez (Colombia)
DNF Sebastian Henao Gomez (Colombia)
DNF Carlos Julian Quintero (Colombia)
DNF Miguel Angel Rubiano Chavez (Colombia)
DNF Johannes Fr_hlinger (Germany)
DNF Andr_ Greipel (Germany)
DNF Christian Knees (Germany)
DNF Tony Martin (Germany)
DNF Paul Voss (Germany)
DNF Maciej Bodnar (Poland)
DNF Bartosz Huzarski (Poland)
DNF Bartlomiej Matysiak (Poland)
DNF Przemyslaw Niemiec (Poland)
DNF Michal Podlaski (Poland)
DNF Pawel Poljanski (Poland)
DNF Eric Marcotte (United States Of America)
DNF Kiel Reijnen (United States Of America)
DNF Andrew Talansky (United States Of America)
DNF Tejay Van Garderen (United States Of America)
DNF Martin Velits (Slovakia)
DNF Dmytro Krivtsov (Ukraine)
DNF Sergiy Lagkuti (Ukraine)
DNF Oleksandr Polivoda (Ukraine)
DNF Roman Maikin (Russian Federation)
DNF Andrei Solomennikov (Russian Federation)
DNF Jure Kocjan (Slovenia)
DNF Kristijan Koren (Slovenia)
DNF Luka Mezgec (Slovenia)
DNF Jan Polanc (Slovenia)
DNF Michael Morkov (Denmark)
DNF Nicki S_rensen (Denmark)
DNF Essaod Abelouache (Morocco)
DNF Tarik Chaoufi (Morocco)
DNF Mohamed Er-Rafai (Morocco)
DNF Mouhssine Lahsaini (Morocco)
DNF Abdelati Saadoune (Morocco)
DNF Bernhard Eisel (Austria)
DNF Marco Haller (Austria)
DNF Patrick Konrad (Austria)
DNF Riccardo Zoidl (Austria)
DNF Natnael Berhane (Eritrea)
DNF Mekseb Debesay (Eritrea)
DNF Daniil Fominykh (Kazakhstan)
DNF Carlos Galviz (Venezuela)
DNF Carlos Jose Ochoa (Venezuela)
DNF Xavier Quevedo (Venezuela)
DNF Azzedine Lagab (Algeria)
DNF Oleg Berdos (Romania)
DNF Andrei Nechita (Romania)
DNF Serghei Tvetcov (Romania)
DNF Philip Deignan (Ireland)
DNF Alo Jakin (Estonia)
DNF Gert Joeaar (Estonia)
DNF Rein Taaramae (Estonia)
DNF Jacques Janse Van Rensburg (South Africa)
DNF Aleksejs Saramotins (Latvia)
DNF Toms Skujins (Latvia)
DNF Greg Henderson (New Zealand)
DNF Rafael Andriato (Brazil)
DNF Cristian Egidio Da Rosa (Brazil)
DNF Murilo Antonio Fischer (Brazil)
DNF Emanuel Kiserlovski (Croatia)
DNF Matija Kvasina (Croatia)
DNF Yukiya Arashiro (Japan)
DNF Yukihiro Doi (Japan)
DNF Juan Carlos Rojas Villegas (Costa Rica)
DNF Lucas Gaday Orozco (Argentina)
DNF Maximiliano Ariel Richeze (Argentina)
DNF Eduardo Sepulveda (Argentina)
DNF Ryan Anderson (Canada)
DNF Christian Meier (Canada)
DNF Michael Woods (Canada)
DNF Segundo Navarrete (Ecuador)
DNF Tobias Ludvigsson (Sweden)
DNF Georgios Bouglas (Greece)
DNF Yauheni Hutarovich (Belarus)
DNF Kanstantsin Siutsou (Belarus)
DNF Ignatas Konovalovas (Lithuania)
DNF Zydrunas Savickas (Lithuania)
DNF Gatis Smukulis (Latvia)