The first successful breakaway of the 2002 World Road Race Championships delivered French junior Arnaud Gerard to victory on Saturday in Zolder, Belgium. Gerard emerged from a six-man group to take the sprint finish ahead of Jukka Vastaranta of Finland and Nicolas Sanderson of Australia.

The weather in Zolder was cool and cloudy for the second day in a row, after three days of sunshine earlier in the week for the time trial championships. On Saturday morning, the junior men set a blazing pace from the start as the field of 164 riders exploded off the line, on their way to an average speed of 45.1 kph (28 mph) over the 128km (79-mile) race.

On the sixth lap of the 10-lap race, American Tyler Farrar helped initiate one of the big moves of the day, as he and four other riders attacked with about 60km to go in the contest.

"It was the perfect opportunity," said Farrar. "An attack went, they chased it down. Another attack went, they just barely got it back, and I thought, ‘This is the moment.’ I was feeling terrific today and I really thought that was going to stick."

Farrar’s group included Swede Jesper Ingevaldsson, Italian Emanuele Rizza, Austrian Matthias Schroger and Swiss Thomas Frei. By the end of the lap, Sanderson had bridged up as well, and he was joined by a steady stream behind. By the end of lap 7, the group had grown to 10, and by lap 8, it was 13 riders strong.

"That second big group bridged up to us and then guys just started sitting on. That was it," said Farrar.

With the Danish team chasing, the big escape group was caught on lap 9, on the short Sterrenwacht hill 2km from the start/finish. So with one lap to go, the race was together, but just as quickly, the countermoves started.

Just before the race headed off the Circuit Zolder track and onto the surrounding roads, a group of three took shape: Gerard, Sanderson and Dutchman Tom Veelers. They would be joined by three more – Slovakian Matej Jurco, Vastaranta and a second Dutchman, Joost Van Leijen – to set up the six-man finish.

Holding onto a slim lead of about 15 seconds over the hill, the group was home free once it hit the descent and the fast run-in to the finish on Circuit Zolder. Then with 250 meters to go, Sanderson took off and opened up a small gap, but the Frenchman Gerard had too much, passing the Aussie on the left and jumping to the world title with the Finn Vastaranta in tow. Sanderson held on for third, followed by Veelers, Jurco and Van Leijen.

Photo: Graham Watson

Just behind, however, a nasty finish-line spill took place in back of the leaders. As the field came in for the seventh-place sprint, Spaniard Jose Rojas touched wheels and tumbled down, setting off a chain reaction that sent riders flying. Australian rider Ryan Sullivan took the worst of it, who flew to the ground and was taken to the hospital with several bad cuts to the face.

Farrar, who was the top American finisher in16th, narrowly missed the crash. "I got a little lucky because I got pinched between two guys, because I was right on the wheel of the guy who fell. I was on the left side, so I just went around it."