Worlds’12 U23 Men ITT: Russia Rules!

Race Report: Thanks to the reported fall out between Dutch TV and the UCI there wasn’t going to be any live footage of the Men’s Under 23 time trial (or Junior), which posed a bit of a problem, but not to worry there are other ways to follow a race! It was a good day for Russia and Norway.

The 36 kilometre course started in Landgraff and after a small circuit it headed towards Valkenburg and the climbs of the Sibbergrubbe which is 2100 metres long with an average gradient of 4.1% and then the Cauberg with its ramp of 5.8% at 1200 metres length, both coming in the last 6 kilometre.

In the Junior time trial this morning; Norway’s Oskar Svendsen won in a time of 35:34 for the 26.6 kilometres beating Matej Mohoric of Slovenia by 7 seconds and Maximilian Schachmann from Germany at 11 seconds in third. Mohoric and Schachmann had been favourites for the gold, but the German had gear shifting problems and the Slovenian made a slow start and had too much to make up later in the race.

Oskar Svendsen took the gold after a close battle with Matej Mohoric.

World Junior Men Individual Time Trial Result:
1. Oskar Svendsen (Norway) in 35:34
2. Matej Mohoric (Slovenia) at 0:07
3. Maximilian Schachmann (Germany) at 0:11
4. Alexander Morga (Australia) at 0:12
5. Mathias Krigbaum (Denmark) at 0:13.

So, to the Under 23 men: Anton Vorobyev (Russia) was the fastest with a time of 44:09.02, behind him the Australian pair of Rohan Dennis and Damien Howson were fighting out the lower places on the podium. Vorobyev was by far the strongest (by over 44 seconds), again it was the climb of the Cauberg that did the damage and the 21 year old Russian showed his strength and consolidated his earlier lead.

Katusha bound Vorobyev was simply too strong today.

Gold medal winner: Anton Vorobyev will be riding for Katusha next year, his soon to be team manager, Hans-Michael Holczer said, “He’s good in time trials, but also a strong road racer. A quiet guy that has a Tony Martin-like style and he’s got a keen eye in the race. We’ll take it real easy on him, bring him slow. He’s an exceptional talent, that’s for sure.” As to today’s race Holczer said; “I expected Anton to be really good, that he could compete for the gold. But this…”

Dennis put in a good ride for silver and…..

His teammate Howson completed a good day out for the Aussies by taking bronze.

At the 13 kilometre time check Vorobyev already had 4 seconds on Dennis, and that was the easier part of the course, then at the 26.5 kilometre mark the Russian had 16 seconds with the climbs still to come. Over those last 6 kilometres; the field struggled to conquer the Sibbergrubbe and the Cauberg, Vorobyev didn’t falter and put a further 28 seconds into Dennis and the race was over.

When asked about the course, the powerful Russian commented, “I just worked hard from the first metres, I was sure of myself and I hoped that I could win.” That boy should go far!

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World Under 23 Men Individual Time Trial Result:
1. Anton Vorobyev (Russian Federation) in 44:09.02
2. Rohan Dennis (Australia) at 0:44.39
3. Damien Howson (Australia) at 0:51.12
4. Lasse Norman Hansen (Denmark) at 0:53.28
5. Rasmus Christian Quaade (Denmark) at 1:02.56
6. Marlen Zmorka (Ukraine) at 1:09.42
7. Rasmus Brandstrup Sterebo (Denmark) at 1:25.24
8. Jasha Sьtterlin (Germany) 0:01:28.70
9. Sergey Chernetski (Russian Federation) at 1:37.95
10. Tom Dumoulin (Netherlands) at 1:40.78.