Another magnificently combative ride by Ben Healy earned him the bronze medal at the World Cycling Championships in the men’s road race, staged around the brutal mountainous terrain of Rwanda’s capital, Kigali.
Sunday’s 267km race featured an unrelenting series of leg-numbing hills at high altitude, ideally suited to Healy.
After over six hours in and out of the saddle, the Irish rider nailed third place inside the last 5km, accelerating clear into the bronze medal position and his place on the World Championships podium.
Tadej Pogacar from Slovenia defended his title and collected another rainbow jersey in familiar style, winning by a minute and 28 seconds after another astonishing solo ride 67km from the finish.
After becoming the fourth Irish rider in Tour de France history to wear the leader’s yellow jersey in July, 25-year-old Healy now joins the same three Irish riders who also previously won medals in the World Championships road race; Stephen Roche, Sean Kelly and Shay Elliott.
Healy had kept himself right in contention after Pogacar first blew the race apart with around 100km remaining, just as the course took on the Mur du Kigali, which peaks at 1,771m above sea level.
With 45km to go Healy was part of a trio of chasing riders along with Remco Evenepoel from Belgium and Denmark’s Mattias Skjelmose, each sharing the effort as they tried in vain to chase down Pogacar.
Tadej Pogacar celebrates as he crosses the finish line to win the men’s road race. Photograph: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP via Getty Images
With 20km to go, Evenepoel attacked, promptly opening a gap of 20 seconds on Healy and Skjelmose, leaving them in a battle for the bronze medal. Healy made his bold bid for the podium with 5km to go, easing over the Côte de Kimihurura, a 1.3km climb with just over 1km to go, before crossing the line in delight.
Arguably the most testing road race course in World Championships history, Isaac Del Toro from Mexico was the only rider to stay with Pogacar after he made his move on the Mur du Kigali, before he was dropped with 66km to go, leaving Pogacar out on his own.
Healy made several aggressive attacks off the original chasing group of around 30 riders before the main chasing group on Pogacar grew to five riders with 61km remaining.
With 50km to go, the five-rider chasing group consisted of Healy, Evenepoel, Skjelmose, Britain’s Tom Pidcock, and Jai Hindley from Australia. Hindley and Pidcock were distanced with around 45km to go, the remaining trio still with a minute gap to Pogacar with 36km to go.
Roche won the World Championships title in 1987, having earned bronze in 1983. Kelly also won two bronze medals, in 1982 and 1989, finishing in the top-10 seven times in all, while Elliott won the silver medal in 1962.
Starting with nine 15.1km laps around Kigali, the course veered out to climb the Mur du Kigal, before returning for six more laps around Kigali, ultimately where the medals were decided.
Healy finished seventh in last year’s road race, staged in Zurich, and this year had earmarked Kigali as perfectly suited to his style of riding.
Pogacar rode the last 67km solo, having won last year’s title with a 50km solo break from the finish, his effort on Sunday in part likely motivated by losing the time trial to Evenepoel earlier in week.
More to follow …