Surging clear inside the final kilometre, Matej Mohoric sped to the junior men’s road race title today, thus adding gold to the silver medal he took earlier this week in the time trial.
The Slovenian rider ended the 128.8km race clear of Australia’s Caleb Ewan, Croatia’s Josip Rumac and 53 others.
“Contrary to what people might think, I’m not a bunch-sprinter. At the European championships I came in fourth but that was because I was in a breakaway that was caught on the finish-line,” he said afterwards. “The course wasn’t as easy as it looks, because of the wind. When the whole bunch arrived at the Cauberg I managed to stay in the front and had still something left. What can I say? This is incredible, fantastic. I can’t believe it…”
Still just 17 years of age, Mohoric said that he’d take things one step at a time and likely ride for a Slovenian Continental team next season rather than turning pro.
Australian Caleb Ewan has a similar surname to now-retired top Aussie pro Robbie McEwan, and also showed some of the same fast-twitch fibre speed in the push for the line. He said that the other riders on the team dedicated themselves to him, giving up their own chances.
“In the end it was just me,” he said. “This was my main goal for the whole season. I even stayed with a Dutch family for a week to get used to riding in big bunches. In Australia it’s about 80 riders, here it’s like 200. So yeah, I’m pretty disappointed, but I was beaten by a better rider.”
He said that he intends moving to Europe next year to compete, but didn’t name the likely squad. He confirmed that he has friends within the Saxo Bank setup, but that there had been no contract talks. That’s logical; like the others in the race he’s still very young, and so two or three years with a smaller squad is par for the course first.
World road race championships, Valkenburg:
Junior men’s road race:
1, Matej Mohoric (Slovenia) 128.8 kilometres in 3 hours 45 secs
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)
16, Alexandre Darville (United States of America)
17, Lukas Spengler (Switzerland)
18, Dries Van Gestel (Belgium)
19, Przemyslaw Kasperkiewicz (Poland)
20, Piotr Havik (Netherlands)
21, Tao Geoghegan Hart (Great Britain)
22, Lubos Malovec (Slovakia)
23, Hiroki Nishimura (Japan)
24, Milos Borisavljevic (Serbia)
25, Merijn Korevaar (Netherlands)
26, Arne Egner (Germany)
27, Bradley Linfield (Australia)
28, Vitaliy Marukhin (Kazakhstan)
29, Silvio Herklotz (Germany)
30, Kolya Shumov (Belarus)
31, Oliviero Troia (Italy)
32, Markus Hoelgaard (Norway)
33, Alex Peters (Great Britain)
34, Enric Mas Nicolau (Spain)
35, Jenthe Biermans (Belgium)
36, Germain Burton (Great Britain)
37, Benjamin Perry (Canada)
38, Oskar Nisu (Estonia)
39, Tobias Derler (Austria)
40, Roman Lutsyshyn (Ukraine)
41, Dennis Paulus (Austria)
42, Lennard Hofstede (Netherlands)
43, Jan Brockhoff (Germany)
44, Anatoliy Budiak (Ukraine)
45, Felix Pouilly (France)
46, Quentin Jauregui (France)
47, Ildar Arslanov (Russian Federation)
48, Yuri Kobashi (Japan)
49, Jure Miskulin (Slovenia)
50, Anthony Turgis (France)
51, Dylan Kowalski (France)
52, Alexey Vermeulen (United States of America)
53, Sean Hambrook (New Zealand)
54, Nathan Van Hooydonck (Belgium)
55, Fredrik Ludvigsson (Sweden)
56, Riccardo Donato (Italy)
57, Jose Tito Hernandez Jaramillo (Colombia) at 12
58, Diyas Shagayev (Kazakhstan)
59, Ivan Garcia Cortina (Spain)
60, Caio Godoy Ormenese (Brazil)
61, Erik Baska (Slovakia)
62, Kristian Aasvold (Norway)
63, Ruslan Giliazov (Russian Federation)
64, Maciej Kasperkiewicz (Poland)
65, Patryk Stosz (Poland)
66, Elie Gesbert (France)
67, Francisco Valinho (Portugal)
68, Aydar Gareyshin (Russian Federation)
69, Mathias Rask Jeppesen (Denmark)
70, Peteris Janevics (Latvia)
71, Gian Friesecke (Switzerland)
72, Geoffrey Curran (United States of America)
73, Emil Vinjebo (Denmark)
74, Niklas Eg (Denmark)
75, Mads Pedersen (Denmark)
76, Nico Denz (Germany)
77, Dominic Von Burg (Switzerland) at 17
78, Oskar Svendsen (Norway)
79, Francesco Rosa (Italy) at 25
80, Abderahmane Mansouri (Algeria)
81, David Per (Slovenia)
82, Michael Vakoc (Czech Republic)
83, Nigel Ellsay (Canada)
84, Chun Wing Leung (Hong Kong, China)
85, Sam Oomen (Netherlands)
86, Maximilian Schachmann (Germany) at 28
87, Carlos Henrique Dos Santos (Brazil)
88, Ryan Mullen (Ireland)
89, Joachim Vanreyten (Belgium) at 33
90, Petter Schmidt (Norway) at 43
91, Yerlan Pernebekov (Kazakhstan)
92, Jo Biehl (Luxembourg)
93, Artem Nych (Russian Federation)
94, Christopher Lawless (Great Britain)
95, Vladislau Dubovski (Belarus)
96, Stylianos Farantakis (Greece) at 47
97, Oscar Gonzalez Del Campo Garcia-Villarrubia (Spain)
98, Marcus Fåglum-Karlsson (Sweden)
99, Amund Grøndahl Jansen (Norway)
100, Hayden McCormick (New Zealand) at 50
101, Cormac Clarke (Ireland) at 53
102, Kilian Frankiny (Switzerland) at 1 mins 1
103, Frederik Plesner (Denmark) at 1 min 33
104, Suguru Tokuda (Japan) at 1 min 39
105, Ryan Felgate (South Africa) at 1 min 45
106, Will Stephenson (Great Britain) at 1 min 54
107, Aksel Nõmmela (Estonia) at 2 mins 3
108, Gregor Muhlberger (Austria) at 2 mins 11
109, Patrick Bosman (Austria)
110, Robert-Jon McCarthy (Australia) at 2 mins 16
111, Nicholas Schultz (Australia)
112, Mario Dasko (Slovakia) at 2 mins 28
113, Umberto Orsini (Italy) at 2 mins 46
114, Jose Alfredo Aguirre Infante (Mexico) at 2 mins 59
115, Ruben Guerreiro (Portugal)
116, William David Muñoz Perez (Colombia) at 5 mins 10
117, Gasper Katrasnik (Slovenia) at 5 mins 49
118, Aliaksandr Riabushenko (Belarus)
119, Kristen Kivistik (Estonia)
120, Luís Gomes (Portugal) at 7 mins 15
121, Haitam Gaiz (Morocco) at 7 mins 22
122, Igor Minchenko (Russian Federation)
123, Gregory Daniel (United States of America) at 8 mins 56
Outside time limit:
Julian Barrientos (Argentina)
Christophe Braun (Luxembourg)
Karim El Ouafi (Morocco)
Hamza Fatnassi (Tunisia)
Ali Nouisri (Tunisia),
Did not finish:
German Nicolas Tivani Perez (Argentina)
Pita Cristian David (Ecuador)
Alexander Wachter (Austria)
Martin Otonicar (Slovenia)
David Klein (Luxembourg)
Aviv Yechezkel (Israel)
Szymon Rekita (Poland)
Krists Neilands (Latvia)
Stefan Stefanovic (Serbia)
Andrea Terenzi (San Marino)
Ryan Gibbons (South Africa)
Bruno Maltar (Croatia)
Taylor Eisenhart (United States of America)
Andrejs Podans (Latvia)
Henrik Luostarinen (Finland)
Andrei Covalciuc (Republic of Moldova)
Raimondas Rumsas (Lithuania)
Rohan Du Plooy (South Africa)
Victor Langellotti (Monaco)
Miguel Bryon (United States of America)
Matthew Doyle (Ireland)
Feritcan Samli (Turkey)
Christopher Prendergast (Canada)
Gregely Varró (Hungary)
Nicolas D`Angelo (Monaco)
Viktor Okishev (Kazakhstan)
Jose Luis Rodriguez (Chile)
Abderrahim Aouida (Morocco)
Sergey Luchshenko (Kazakhstan)
Mustapha Droueche (Algeria)
Marko Polumirac (Serbia)
Ofek Hason (Israel)
Bálint Varró (Hungary)
Ábel Kenyeres (Hungary)
Lukas Talacka (Lithuania)
Ferhat Sezer (Turkey)
Kota Yokoyama (Japan)
Rostyslav Chernysh (Ukraine)
Emre Sahin (Turkey)
Bruno Jean Jacques Dabbaghian (Lebanon)
Karim Ahmad Firdaus Abdul (Malaysia)
Abderrahmane Bechlagheme (Algeria)
Gay Sagiv (Israel)
Ricardo Van Dongen (Netherlands)
Gustav Höög (Sweden)
Mantas Petrusevicius (Lithuania)
Anuar Mohamad Azrul Taufiq (Malaysia)