In what has already been a truly remarkable year for Mark Cavendish, the richest icing has been added to the cake with an awe inspiring World Championship victory in Copenhagen. After finally bringing the Tour de France's maillot vert within his grasp, and winning on the Champs Elysees for the third time in succession, Cavendish's donning of the Rainbow Jersey leaves him with few worlds left to conquer.
Great credit should be given to the Great Britain team, and Bradley Wiggins in particular, who dug fantastically deep to haul the peloton back to a breakaway group to open the door for Cavendish. Geraint Thomas and Ian Stannard marshalled the front in excellent style to protect their prize sprinter from being closed out.
Speaking afterwards Cavendish was not reticent in giving his thanks to his team mates: "There couldn't be another result after the way the guys rode today. They took the race on from start to finish and we won and I can't believe it. The guys worked so hard; you just saw, they rode incredible. I'm so, so proud."
266 Kilometres of Pain
The race began in the centre of Copenhagen and travelled 28km to join the 14km circuit, which they would complete 17 times, traversing a total of 2110m in climbs and 266km of road. With a relentless series of undulations in the circuit but no real big climbs racing was predicted to be fast, making a sustainable breakaway very difficult.
Nevertheless the breaks came thick and fast with riders jumping out of every corner in the opening stages. Eventually a group of seven managed to wriggle clear in dribs and drabs and had gained a three and a half minute advantage by 50km. Various individual attempts were made to get across to the front group but to little avail.
Working smoothly the leaders moved eight minutes clear of the main field at the 80km mark, and with a Frenchman and and a Spaniard out front it was left up to the other leading nations to pursue. Averaging just short of 50kph the escapees were clocking lap times of 18 minutes, and things began to look a little serious for the chasers.
The Anglo-Saxon Pact
Great Britain and Germany began to do the bulk of the work and gradually the gap came down to five minutes. Around the half way point three riders attacked from the peloton and were joined by two others to establish a second breakaway of five. France were somewhat in the driving with a rider in both the lead and chasing groups.
The Belgians, Italians, and Australians also had men further up the road and so the impetus was still on the Germans and the British to work the main field. As time wore on they were in turn assisted by the Netherlands who also lacked a rider in either break.
At five laps to go the two groups merged as the difference between them and the bunch decreased to a more comfortable gap of just over a minute. In team time trial style the British team worked tirelessly as the leaders picked up the pace under the efforts of the two Frenchmen.
All Over for Thor
The Norwegian holder Thor Hushovd suffered a crash along with Briton Geraint Thomas, and although Thomas managed to rejoin his team mates in the chase, Hushovd unfortunately lagged to over two minutes behind the main group.
The leader's gap continued to come down and a series of attacks were attempted by the likes of Sweden and Denmark. But under the iron hand of the British control there was little success to be had. France's Thomas Voeckler then made an heroic bid for freedom and caught his team mate Roux. Roux had been out all day and so faded, and with one lap to go Voeckler's gap stood at 18 seconds.
Wiggins' Finest Hour
In an action of the purest team spirit Bradley Wiggins, who had taken silver in Wednesday's time trial, moved to the front of the peloton and towed the field for most of the final lap. With half a lap to go Dutchman Johnny Hoogerland leapt clear to join Voeckler, who was now on his own, and the pair made an impressive final bid for victory.
Aided by fellow time trialist David Millar, Wiggins brought Voeckler and Hoogerland in sight and the attack crumbled. Wiggins' efforts did not stop there, however, as he kept the pace high in order to keep control and give his team mates the best chance of setting Cavendish for the inevitable sprint. As Wiggins pulled over Spain, Italy, Australia, and Germany began jostling for position.
Cavendish Comes Through
With the stage now set for the final sprint things began to look not a little nervous, and Cavendish became swamped as the world fought to make an advantage. On the final corner Geraint Thomas dropped from the front to shelter Cavendish and Ian Stannard bustled through superbly bringing the Manxman with him.
Still not quite at the front Cavendish looked to be blocked off as the Australians led out. Then suddenly he came through and began to charge uphill towards the line taking first from Australia's Matthew Goss and German Andre Greipel.
A Textbook Finish
Whilst Cavendish undoubtedly did a fantastic job to take the win there were in many ways no surprises here. This was just the sort of finish from Cavendish that has been witnessed so often on the world stage, not just this season, but for the past two or three years.
At one point Bradley Wiggins' efforts looked as though they might have been in vain as Cavendish slipped out of sight. But as ever Cavendish delivered and maintained a success rate that is equal to Mario Cipollini. From first to last the British team controlled proceedings in excellent fashion and were duly rewarded.
Cavendish had been tipped before the race to be in with a strong chance of winning on this course, not just in the light of his recent results, but for some years. Cavendish conceded: "It's been three years in the making. We knew three years ago when this course was announced. We put a plan together to bring the best group of guys to this race, and come away and bring the Rainbow Jersey back to Britain."
Olympic Dry-Run
At the head of many people's minds, not least Mark Cavendish's, today's performance by Great Britain provided promising indications of how well prepared the team are for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. In August's trial race in London Cavendish came good, but that was a race lacking the level of expectation of today.
What today tells us is that Cavendish and the Great Britain team are fully capable of coping under the cosh. They may have already known this, but a Rainbow Jersey is a nice confidence boost, and the question remains: Who will be there to stop them?
Cavendish made no bones about his intentions saying: "It's a big goal for us, and hopefully we can make the double with [today] and then the Olympics next year."
Source: Eurosport Live
Ralph Connolly - Ralph Connolly is a graduate in English and former milkman. He spends much of his time reading all kinds of detective fiction for it's a ...
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