Pedersen Last Man Standing In Yorkshire

Dane takes surprise win as peloton suffers in driving rain, writes Vern Pitt in Harrogate

- Vern Pitt

They crossed the finish line in dribs and drabs. Six and a half hours in Yorkshire’s finest, least hospitable rain had taken their toll on the riders of the men’s road race. Many looked like the reanimated corpses of bike riders, their skin sallow and eyes sunken; some had difficulty stringing a sentence together; all were shivering uncontrollably.

The men’s World Championship road race is often an attritional one, but this edition left only one rider standing as each member of the peloton fell away kilometer by kilometer, some within sight of the line. Mads Pedersen, the Dane who had gone on the attack at 47km to go, found himself the only one able to push the pedals with any conviction in the race’s final moments.