Matej Mohoric wins the Junior Men Road Race
Matej Mohoric of Team Slovenia wins the 128.8 kilometre Junior Men road race after his spectacular effort during the event.
“I couldn’t believe that I’d won. The course is harder than it looks and there was also a headwind at the top of the Cauberg, that’s why the race finished with a virtual sprint,” said a delighted Matej after the finish.
“I’m not a real sprinter but didn’t want to go on the attack on the last climb because I thought it was too early”.
“I waited until the one kilometre to go kite and then went for it and managed to hold off the peloton”.
The cyclist is already enjoying a terrific season and has marked several top performances in junior cycling this year.
Mohoric launched a perfect attack in the final kilometre of the race to occupy the top podium position and restricted the race favourites.
Caleb Ewan of Australia secured the silver medal spot with Josip Rumac of Team Croatia, Federico Zurlo of Team Italy and Jonathan Dibben of Team Great Britain occupied the third, fourth and the fifth positions in the respective order.
Rumac was looking good for an overall victory but had to settle for the bronze medal, “The world championships were my main goal this year, so I'm disappointed to have missed out on the win but I have no reason to be unhappy,” he said.
The race was expected to finish in a sprint but the final climb of Cauberg, Mohoric changed the whole context.
A bunch of 11 riders lead the bunch with a huge lead of 20 seconds but was soon chased by the second bunch of 12 who were also stopped before the final lap.
Top fifteen finishers after the UCI Road World Junior Championships are as below,
1
Matej Mohoric (Slovenia)
3:00:45
2
Caleb Ewan (Australia)
3
Josip Rumac (Croatia)
4
Federico Zurlo (Italy)
5
Jonathan Dibben (Great Britain)
6
Kevin Deltombe (Belgium)
7
Thomas Boudat (France)
8
Tom Bohli (Switzerland)
9
Mathieu Van Der Poel (Netherlands)
10
Søren Kragh Andersen (Denmark)
11
Fridtjof Røinås (Norway)
12
Tiesj Benoot (Belgium)
13
Phil Bauhaus (Germany)
14
Tom Vessey (New Zealand)
15
Giacomo Peroni (Italy)
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