Remco Evenepoel: Belgium rider wins World Championship road race after solo breakaway

Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel claimed the World Championship road race title after producing a stunning solo breakaway win in Australia.

It caps off an incredible season for the 22-year-old, who became Belgium’s first Grand Tour champion in 44 years when he won the Vuelta a Espana.

He finished two minutes and 21 seconds ahead of France’s Christophe Laporte.

One of the pre-race favourites, Mathieu van der Poel dropped out early after he was arrested on Saturday night.

The 27-year-old Dutch rider was arrested and charged with assaulting two teenagers in Sydney after police were called to his hotel on the evening before the race.

Evenepoel, who also won the one-day Liege-Bastogne-Liege monument race earlier this year, crossed the line in six hours, 16 minutes and eight seconds, after breaking clear with 25km remaining of the 266.9km race around the Australian city of Wollongong.

“It’s something I’ve been dreaming of and now after a monument, a big classic, a Grand Tour and now world champion, I think I’ve won everything I could this year,” Evenepoel said.

“I don’t think I will ever have a better season than this. I’m not going to see my bed tonight.”

The Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl rider made a breakaway move with 32km left and Alexey Lutsenko was the only rider to go with him, but Evenapoel dropped the Kazakh on a climb seven kilometres later.

“I felt quite quickly that I was stronger than Alexey and I wanted to go alone because there’s no time to waste on a circuit like this,” said Evenepoel, who also won a bronze medal in last weekend’s time trial.

“The last climb was super hard and my legs exploded but it’s the world championship, you just want to win the jersey.”

Lutsenko was caught by four other riders in the closing kilometres but they then were too watchful of each other in the final kilometre, allowing a chasing bunch to catch and pass them.

Laporte eventually won the sprint finish for silver, with Australia’s Michael Matthews third. Britain’s Ethan Hayter, who crossed the line in ninth, was also part of that fast-finishing bunch.

Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe, who was chasing a third successive world title, finished more than three minutes behind Evenepoel.