Kiwis Worlds foiled by crash

Henderson and Bauer before the start today ©Graham Watson

Sep 26th, 11. The three strong New Zealand team of Julian Dean, Greg Henderson and Jack Bauer was caught on the wrong side of a peloton split thanks to a crash two thirds of the way through the UCI Road World Championships today.

After 180km, a big crash saw 118 riders gain a minute on the rest of the 210 rider peloton.

Along with the Kiwis was defending World Champion Thor Hushovd (Norway).

To minimise their losses, Bauer jumped on the front in time trial mode.

With Henderson and Dean close by, and lending a hand, he gave everything he could to rejoin the two groups.

Unfortunately, up the front of the first group Great Britain was pushing the pace in order to reel in a break of 11 riders.

The time gap between the two bunches got wider and wider, until the Kiwis chances of success fell away entirely.  

A five hour forty minute 266km race was ruined in a moment of error by a non-Kiwi rider or two. Cycling is a super tough sport!

"I really wanted to do a good result today to show the New Zealand selectors that I am able and capable for the Olympics so it was disappointing for that regard," said Julian Dean. "I'm really disappointed and I know that Greg and Jack feel the same because we all had good legs today.

"The crash just split the field and we were stuck there for more than a minute and the peloton just split in two basically. It was the wrong place at the wrong time.

"I had just taken my last feed with 75km to go. When you take your feed bag you lose a lot of places in the peloton and after that we came down the descent the crash happened.

"We did try to get back for a few laps but there were a number of threats in the group and anyone with riders in the front does not want to work to bring any potential threats back up to the field. At the same time the pace was really on at the front and so with some teams not helping we were doomed really.

"Looking at the result and talking with Hendy, we know we had the capability to have featured in that finish which makes it doubly disappointing and frustrating."

Great Britain, who raced proudly with their favourites title, delivered what they set out to achieve. Mark Cavendish is the new World Road Champion thanks to a huge team effort (Read more ..)

Matt Goss (Australia) was 2nd and Andre Greipel (Germany) rounded out the podium after a photo finish with Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland).

In his post race interview Cavendish proved himself a champion for a second time by never saying "I" once. His comments were all about the team and their three year project to take the rainbow jersey to Great Britain.

UCI World Road Championships

• Road race results from the UCI Road World Championships
• New World Road Champion Mark Cavendish
• Kiwis Worlds foiled by crash
• Jack Bauer ready for Worlds challenge
• Linda Villumsen races to plan
• Crashes hold junior Kiwis back
• Disappointment for U23 Kiwi men
• Junior Kiwis in the action, not just the good action
• Start lists for the road race events
• Kiwi family has two riders to cheer at the Worlds
• All time trial results
• Tony Martin delivers a World Champion performance
• Big images of the Kiwis in action
• Jack Bauer happy with Top 20 performance
• UCI name Jesse Sergent as one of the favourites
• Silver success for Linda Villumsen
• Stunning silver medal for James Oram
• Junior Kiwis benefit from World Champs merger
• Two Kiwis 6th best TT times in the World
• Aussies steal all the action on Day 1 
• Women's elite TT start list
• NZ team and race schedule